Across the Tasman, the S&P/ASX 200 Index was down 4.19% to 7346.6 points at 6pm NZ time after earlier falling more than 6%.
The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index had plunged 12.45% to 20,003.94 points; and the Japanese Nikkei 225 was down 6.94% to 31,48436.539.85.
Matt Goodson, managing director of Salt Funds Management, said “the grim reaper cometh. When the regional markets saw the US stock futures were down 4.5%, this really set the tone for everything that followed”.
“There was a bit of panic on the opening in Australia but our market has been orderly all day.”
Goodson said the falls are not unprecedented and are different from the panic of Covid and the Global Financial Crisis.
“Then we didn’t know how it would end up, but this one has a defined course with a combination of outcomes such as the US backing down and countries doing [trade and tariff] deals.
“The tariff impact on New Zealand companies is not large and we have a lot of room to cut interest rates, whereas the impact in the US is stagflation and it’s hard to cut rates,” he said.
“It’s time for investors to keep their heads and work out which stocks are not affected and have become truly cheap.”
The US markets registered a second day of heavy selling (Saturday NZ time), shedding US$5 trillion ($9t) in value over two trading sessions, after the shock delivered by Trump to world trade.
The technology-laden Nasdaq Composite became a bear market after falling 962 points or 5.82% to 15,587.79. It is now 22% below its December 16 closing high of 20,173.89.
The S&P 500, down 5.97% to 5074.08 points, had its biggest single-day slump since March 2020 and is now down 17% since the January 23 peak of 6118.71.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2231 points or 5.5% to 38,314.86, marking the first time the index has fallen more than 1500 points over two successive days.
At home, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was down $1.13 or 3.27% to $33.45; Infratil declined 40c or 4.1% to $9.35; Auckland International Airport decreased 29.5c or 3.69% to $7.70; Ebos Group shed $1.50 or 3.86% to $37.40; a2 Milk eased 24c or 2.81% to $8.30; and Mainfreight fell $4.32 or 6.95% to a four-and-a-half-year low of $57.80.
Fletcher Building declined 22c or 6.92% to $2.96; Spark was down 5c or 2.4% to $2.03; Summerset decreased 23c or 2.09% to $10.77; Ryman Healthcare fell 11c or 4.17% to $2.53; Port of Tauranga shed 33c or 5.05% to $6.20; and SkyCity was down 8c or 6.3% to $1.19.
Contact Energy was down 32c or 3.48% to $8.88 after reporting that South Island hydro storage was at 70% of mean and North Island 90% for the month ending April 3, and mass market electricity and gas sales for March were 282GWh compared with 297GWh for the same month last year.
Elsewhere in the energy sector, Mercury declined 25c or 4.25% to $5.63; Meridian was down 14c or 2.43% to $5.62; and Manawa eased 7c to $4.63.
Other decliners were Chorus decreasing 41c or 5.06% to $7.70; Air New Zealand down 2.5c or 4.13% to 58c; NZME falling 8c or 7.02% to $1.06; Vulcan Steel shedding 51c or 5.93% to $8.09; Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund falling 36c or 6.36% to $5.30; and Freightways down 49c or 4.67% to $10.01.
In the retail sector, Hallenstein Glasson declined 29c or 3.61% to $7.75; Briscoe Group eased 10c or 2.38% to $4.10; Michael Hill decreased 2c or 4.4% to 43.5c; and KMD Brands, which is redirecting some inventory from the US to other global markets, shed 1.5c or 4.35% to 33c.
Among technology stocks, Vista was down 12c or 3.37% to $3.44 and Serko declined 17c or 4.59% to $3.53. Kiwifruit grower and packer Seeka fell 42c or 11.05% to $3.38.
Among the few gainers, 2 Cheap Cars gained 2c or 2.78% to 74c; Winton Land was up 4c or 2.09% to $1.95; and Allied Farmers added 2c or 2.7% to 76c.
