The New Zealand sharemarket fell 1.5 per cent in early trading after trade war fears drove Wall Street down sharply.
By 11.30am, the NZX-50 index was down by 157.2 points or 1.46 per cent at 10,469.
Wall Streets Dow Jones Index finished 2.4 per cent lower on Friday and futures market pricing is pointing to more weakness in the US this week.
“You would expect the New Zealand market to hold up relatively well given the mix of utilities and defensive style stocks that we have,” Shane Solly, portfolio manager at Harbour Asset Management, said.
There is expected to be turbulence as markets across Asia open today after the escalation of the US-China trade war, US President Donald Trump’s tweets labelling his own Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell an “enemy” and his threatening tariffs on French wine.
