KEY POINTS:
Telecom continued to outperform the market today on good volume but there were not many other bright spots as markets around the world fell.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed down 29.325 points, or 1.072 per cent, at 2705.086. This was a better performance than the Australian market, which
was down more than 3 per cent.
Telecom was again the standout, rising 2c to 253 with more than 16 million shares traded.
ABN Amro Craigs senior dealer Bryon Burke said about 10 million of that went through before the market opened.
"Telecom has out performed the local market and the rest of the world and certainly Telstra," he said.
Local shareholders may be underweight in Telecom, he said.
Otherwise the market was lacking features as there was again little news to trade off.
"The market has been pretty much in line with overseas markets today. The tone has been negative," he said.
Retail investors did not need to chase yield on the equity market and some were waiting for certainty of earnings and dividends in the upcoming reporting season, he said.
Among other leading stocks Fletcher Building gave up 20s to 555, reversing most of its 11c gain yesterday during which the company announced it had sold $100 million of capital notes and the sale was still open. Contact Energy eased 10c early to 666.
Other stocks to fall included Sky City, down 8c to 305, and SkyTV down 5c to 390. Port of Tauranga was down 13c to 590.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare fell 2c to 314 and NZX fell 5c to 485.
Among the dual-listed banking stocks, Westpac dropped 55c to 1870 and ANZ was down 139c to 1495.
A lot of stocks were unchanged, including Air NZ, Cavalier, Nuplex, Sanford, TrustPower, Ryman and The Warehouse.
United States stocks slid on Thursday, after Microsoft said it would cut up to 5 per cent of its estimated work force over the next 18 months and disappointing earnings shook investors.
Economic data showed further deterioration in the labour and housing markets.
"There's just no good news out there. Microsoft pulled the rug out from under us," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey.
"Wall Street hates surprises - don't surprise us like that."
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 105.30 points, or 1.28 per cent, to 8122.80. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 12.74 points, or 1.52 per cent, to 827.50. The Nasdaq Composite Index slumped 41.58 points, or 2.76 per cent, to 1465.49.
- NZPA