NZX takes hit after Wall St slide

Specialist Meric Greenbaum works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. File photo / AP

New Zealand stocks are taking another pummelling today on the back of renewed concerns about the state of the Chinese economy.

The S&P/NZX 50 was down 1.38 per cent just after 11am.

Major stocks taking big hits include Air New Zealand, down 2.2 per cent, and Auckland Airport, which had fallen 1.9 per cent in early trading.

Cloud accounting software developer Xero was down 3.6 per cent at $13.40.
Investors are reacting to a contraction in Chinese manufacturing, with the country's manufacturing purchasing-managers index (PMI) falling to 49.7 in August from 50 in July.

The slowdown in the world's second-biggest economy is contributing to concerns about the outlook for global economic growth.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial index closed down 2.84 per cent on Tuesday, while the S&P 500 index closed to 2.96 per cent.

Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners, said the recovery that followed a China-related sell-off in markets last week was "just a bounce".
"It looks like we might re-visit some of those low points that we saw early last week," he said. "I'm not terribly surprised that we've seen a bit more caution creep back into markets ... markets are just very touchy at the moment on anything China related."

See video - China woes drag US market lower

Lister said there was much uncertainty about the real economic situation in China.
"It's just the uncertainty and the lack of transparency that is causing such concern," he said. "People just don't feel that they've got a good handle on exactly what's happening on the ground and we're getting mixed messages from some of the official data points and some of the other things that people follow."