KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket fell 1 per cent today as offshore selling pushed down the leading stocks.
The NZSX-50 benchmark index lost 37.07 points to 3605.57, reversing yesterday's gain of 25.82 points. Volume was a light $84.6 million.
There was little company-specific news, with moves driven by offshore sellers focusing on the currency's direction, said First NZ Capital director Philip Hunter.
"...That's becoming more and more of a focus for offshore investors as we get closer to the time of the Reserve Bank easing monetary policy, which will remove part of the support for the New Zealand dollar," he said.
The top-50's decline was in contrast with Australia's flat market.
Top stock Telecom fell 13c to 370 ahead of its quarterly result on Friday, when the company is expected to report weaker net profit.
Elsewhere on the top-10, Fletcher Building was down 24c at 866, Contact Energy fell 3c to 938, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare lost 9c to 266, F&P Appliances was down 8c at 240, Auckland Airport fell a cent to 215, and Infratil was flat at 230.
Oil and gas explorer NZ Oil and Gas fell 2c to 158, retreating from recent record highs, despite reporting strong cash flows as a result of its Tui field.
The Warehouse, which yesterday rose 30c as the Commerce Commission returned to court to appeal a High Court decision which cleared Woolworths and Foodstuffs to court the retailer, retreated 6c to 594 after a firmer start.
Air New Zealand was up 3c at 121, lurking around the lows it touched in September 2001 when the Government had to bail the airline out.
The company has been suffering because of the rising price of fuel and from competitive pressures.
On the rise were seafood exporter Sanford, up 13c to 446, Port of Tauranga, up 5c at 650, Sky TV, up 2c at 455, Nuplex, 11c higher at 644, and Hallenstein Glasson, up 4c at 353.
Among dual-listed stocks, ANZ was flat at 2650, Westpac fell 2c to 3008, Lion Nathan lost 20c to 1015, and AMP was down 2c at 928.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index was little changed at 5606, and Japan's Nikkei share average was up 0.2 per cent.
Earlier on Wall Street, leading indexes ended mixed as jitters ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting and key data on the United States economy kept trade cautious, despite a flurry of corporate dealmaking news.
The US market digested a US$23 billion ($30 billion) takeover unveiled for chewing gum giant Wrigley and a big investment in Ford Motor Co, which sparked some early buying interest before a late-day selloff.
- NZPA
