KEY POINTS:
Blue chip stocks led the way lower today following a retreat on Wall Street, with two top-10 stocks hitting their lowest points in years.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed down 20.9 points, or 0.6 per cent, at 3404.5, declining along with other regional bourses after a slide of
financial shares in the United States spread to other US stocks.
Turnover totalled $123.8 million.
"It's reflective that the overseas markets were weak overnight, so we're currently bouncing a little bit to the overseas tune," said Macquarie Equities investment director Arthur Lim.
Sky City hit a five-year low of 348, down 4c, joining Auckland International Airport in a post-takeover slump as large overseas funds sold down positions.
AIA was down 7c at 213.
Fisher & Paykel Appliances slid 8c to a five-and-a-half-year low of 230 after saying it would hold onto its finance company, a move expected in difficult market conditions.
Top stock Telecom was down 4c at 378, Fletcher Building fell 14c to 834, Contact Energy was down 6c at 800, Sky TV was flat at 473, and F&P Healthcare was steady at 282.
Air New Zealand fell 5c to 130, TrustPower lost 20c to 749, The Warehouse was down 4c at 586, Mainfreight fell 4c to 562, and Infratil was down a cent at 213.
"On the positive side, it is quite glaring that some of the Fisher Funds stocks which have recently been sold down very, very aggressively, have all been going higher. I think that is a reflection of the fact that it has been anticipated that Fisher Funds have had to sell down part of its portfolio," Mr Lim said.
Among those stocks, Rakon was up 3c at 250, Pumpkin Patch rose 7c to 188, Freightways gained 7c to 317, and NZX was up 11c at 701.
Fisher Funds is no longer managing New Zealand equities for the Government's superannuation fund, freeing up some space in its own retail funds after it sold the NZ Super Fund holdings.
Nuplex was up 2c at 582, Tower gained 2c to 178, Sanford was up 10c at 380, and NZ Oil and Gas gained 2c to 131.
Among dual-listed stocks, ANZ gained 20c to 2730, Westpac was up 66c at 2786, Lion Nathan fell 8c to 1005, and Telstra rose 11c to 495.
Australia's benchmark index was down 0.2 per cent at 5369, while Japan's Nikkei share average fell 0.8 per cent.
Earlier in the US, bank stocks tumbled across the board when a prominent analyst lowered her first-quarter profit forecasts for Citigroup, Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and Wachovia Corp.
The S&P financial index fell 3.5 per cent, marking its biggest setback after rising more than 10 per cent in the last two weeks.
- NZPA