The New Zealand sharemarket tumbled in the first few minutes of trading, after equities in the United States plunged at the end of last week as fraud charges against Goldman Sachs and disappointing earnings sent investors running for cover.
Fletcher Building shares, which reached a six-month high $8.56 last Thursday, fell 15c early today to $8.34, while declines among other market leaders saw Telecom down 2c to $2.16 and Contact Energy down 2c to $6.36.
Stocks falling 5c early included Air New Zealand, to $1.36, Port of Tauranga to $6.90, Sky City to $3.20, and The Warehouse to $3.78. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare fell 4c to $3.40, Mainfreight dropped 3c to $6.49 and NZ Oil & Gas lost 3c to $1.53.
Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 26.09 points, or 0.79 per cent, to 3285.22. On Friday it fell 9.8 points, having reached a 19-month intraday high around 3349 points on Thursday.
Listed industrial property investor Property for Industry slipped 1c to $1.15 despite reporting first quarter rentals were 3.2 per cent higher than a year earlier.
Fishing company Sanford gained 2c early to $4.42 and Rubicon gained 5c to $1.00.
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In the US, the Dow Jones industrial average ended Friday down 1.1 per cent at 11,018.66, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 1.6 per cent at 1192.14, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was down 1.4 per cent at 2481.26.
After a rally that lasted six straight weeks, stocks were down as Google Inc, Bank of America Corp and General Electric Co reported quarterly results that fell short of heightened expectations.
Amid the largest trading volume since last May, Goldman Sachs fell 13 per cent to US$160.89 per share in its worst one-day drop since January 2009.
The fall was on a volume of more than 100 million shares after the Securities and Exchange Commission charged the Wall Street firm with fraud over its handling of a debt product tied to subprime mortgages.
- NZPA
Sharemarket tumbles early
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