The New Zealand share market is following Wall Street downwards, as has the Australian share market, which opened lower on Monday.
At 12.25pm on Monday, the NZX 50 was down 31 points, or 1%, to 3191 on turnover of $43 million.
While the drop could be a minor reaction to the situation in the United States, a director at broking firm Hamilton Hinden Greene, Adrian Vance, says it also reflects the general market outlook in New Zealand.
About 60% of trading was in New Zealand's largest listed company, Telecom. It was down 5 cents to $3.34. Contact Energy was down 15c to $7.45 and Fletcher Building was down 11c to $6.27. The Warehouse was down 2c to $3.98, Hallenstein Glasson was down 2c to $2.55 and Pumpkin Patch was down 1c to $1.43.
At midday, the dollar was buying US75.92 cents, 78.51 Australian cents, 38.26 pence, 80.89 yen and 0.4773 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 67.31.
The Australian share market also opened lower as banks dipped and miners also lost ground.
At 10.30am, the S&P/ASX200 index had fallen 38 points, or 0.76%, to 4941.9, while the All Ordinaries lost 39.9 points to 5,027.9. The September share price index futures contract slipped 17 points to 4,937 on a volume of 6,647 contracts.
Before the market opened, Toll Holdings said it would quit its majority stake in Virgin Blue by paying a special dividend to shareholders using its shares in the airline.
The move follows years of speculation about what Toll would do with its 62.7% interest, which it inherited from a takeover of stevedore Patrick in 2006. Shares in Toll jumped more than 1% to $A6.45, while Virgin Blue added 1.5c, or 2.97%, to 52c. Qantas Airways was down 3c to $A3.19.
