Market falls 1pc after US tumble

The United States equity market's power to influence others was demonstrated today when the New Zealand market fell, after the Dow had its worst slide since July on Friday.

Still, the benchmark NZSX-50 index did not move in lockstep, falling about 1 per cent compared to the Dow's 2.5 per cent call.

The NZSX-50 index finished down 31.88 points at 3183.739, which was above its low of the day.

Grant Williamson, director at Hamilton, Hindin, Greene said the sharp fall in the NZ dollar was a positive factor for exporters.

The NZ dollar fell as low as US71.50c today from US73.24c on Friday but recovered to US72.19c by 5pm.

"If there was any doubt developing about the power of the US equity markets to influence other markets, this was certainly dispelled on Friday night," Rankin Treasury said in a commentary.

Mr Williamson said the market's decline was a "pure reaction to what happened on Wall Street on Friday night".

"Once again we are not as volatile as these offshore markets," he said.

Losses were across a broad group in the top 50 shares on a day with a light flow of corporate news.

Turnover was worth $60.88 million. There were 24 rises and 56 falls among the 112 stocks traded.

Leading the way down, Fletcher Building lost 20c to 812, while Telecom was down 1c to 253 and Contact Energy lost 8c to 618.

Pyne Gould Corp was steady at 44c after fronting shareholders at its annual meeting on Friday.

SkyCity fell 8c to 339. The voting down of an update of the company's constitution to incorporate changes in NZX rules was a talking point among investors today and was being seen as a general message to boards to consult shareholders from institutions.

NZ Refining Co lost 13c to 520, The Warehouse was down 1c to 453, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare down 4c to 306, NZX dropped 5c to 790, and Port of Tauranga was down 3c to 702.

Tower fell 2c to 170, GPG fell 1c to 84 and Tourism Holdings fell 1c to 71.

Sanford rose 8c to 495, Hellaby 3c to 168 and Frieghtways 3c to 304.

Infratil rose 2c to 165 after announcing the sale of its investment in Lubeck airport, in Germany.

Property for Industry rose 1c to 121 after reporting a 3.3 per cent rise in nine-month net operating profit.

In the US, stocks slid on concerns that the economic recovery would not be robust enough to sustain the seven-month stock rally, while financials sank on renewed worries about Citigroup's balance sheet.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 2.5 per cent to end at 9712.73, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 2.8 per cent to 1036.19, and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 2.5 per cent to close at 2045.11.

- NZPA