The New Zealand sharemarket has had its biggest one day fall in 10 months as it got caught up in the turmoil caused by the escalating US-China trade war.
Photo: Supplied / NZX
The New Zealand sharemarket has had its biggest one day fall in 10 months as it got caught up in the turmoil caused by the escalating US-China trade war.
The benchmark top-50 index officially closed nearly 1.7 percent lower, the worst daily session since mid-October last year.
At one stage it was down more than 2 percent as investors dumped risky stocks and sought safety on the sidelines. The NZX opened down 1.3 percent.
All but four stocks in the main index fell in price, with the biggest drops for some of those doing business with China or which had risen strongly in the recent market rally.
The New Zealand market was in record territory last week, and even after today's slide is up more than 21 percent in value.
Markets around Asia are also weaker but have also bounced off their lows, although European and U.S. markets are expected to remain volatile when they resume business tonight.
In the US, Wall Street had its worst trading day of 2019, the Dow Jones index plunging 950 points at one point during the session, but paring losses to finish down more than 760 points, close to 3 percent lower.
The broader S&P 500 was also down nearly 3 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq, down almost 3.5 percent.
The turmoil was prompted by China escalating the trade war with the US, allowing its currency, the yuan, to fall to its lowest level against the US dollar in more than a decade, making its exports cheaper and more competitive.
The move was viewed as retaliation against US President Donald Trump's threat to impose tariffs of 10 percent on and additional US$300bn of Chinese goods from 1 September.
Meanwhile, Beijing has fired a salvo on another front, putting a stop to companies buying US agricultural products, and it also warned it may impose further tariffs on recently-purchased US farm products.