Markets in the Asia-Pacific region were mixed on Wednesday. The New Zealand and Australian indexes fell slightly, but Japan's Nikkei was higher by the close of trade.
The NZX 50 finished the day 44 points, or 1.5%, lower to 2904 on turnover of $80 million.
Telecom shed 14 cents to $2.44 after announcing it will spend more than $500 million on a new mobile network
Contact Energy was down 12c to $7.35 and Fletcher Building also fell 12c to $6.23. New Zealand Oil and Gas was down 2c to $1.23.
At 5.20pm, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 61.75 US cents, 88.71 Australian, 35.41 pence, 62.55 yen and 0.4546 euro. The Trade Weighted Index stood at 60.84.
The Australian share market returned to the red on Wednesday but contained its losses to less than 1%. The domestic market took its downwards lead from a weaker Wall Street overnight and falls in resources stocks.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 35.2 points, or 0.81% at 4,300, while the broader All Ordinaries index fell 39 points, or 0.9%, to 4,272.5.
At 1626 AEDT, spot gold was trading in Sydney at $US844.15 an ounce, down $US1.25 on Tuesday's close of $US845.40.
Japanese share prices closed up 1.06%, extending the previous day's record gains on hopes the global financial crisis was easing.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange's benchmark Nikkei-225 index rose 99.90 points to 9,547.47, a day after surging more than 14%, its biggest ever gain.
The index spent most of the session in negative territory but staged a late rally to end higher for a second straight day.
On Wall Street indexes were down by almost 1% on Tuesday despite the announcement of a $US250 billion federal rescue plan for banks. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 76.62 points, or 0.82%, at 9,310.99.
On Monday, the Dow rose by 936.42 points, or 11.08%, to 9,387.61 as markets around the world reacted to government intervention to tackle the financial crisis.
