(RTTNews) - Mixed opens are expected Tuesday for the New Zealand and Australia sharemarkets, following a volatile trading session on Wall Street overnight.

New Zealand’s market followed the U.S. lead to lower ground on Monday, but fell less than others in the region.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed with a loss of 31.88 points or 1.0 percent at 3,183.7.

Trading volume was listed by the NZ Stock Exchange at 22.5 million shares valued at NZ$42.6 million.

There were 24 stocks closing higher, 56 were lower and 32 unchanged.

Among the session’s most heavily traded issues, AMP New Zealand Office Trust was down NZ$0.02, Goodman Property Trust was down .01, Kiwi Income Property Trust was unchanged, SkyCity Entertainment was down .08 and Telecom Corp of NZ was down a penny.

Fletcher Building shares fell .20 while Contact Energy was down .08.

As for the Australia-NZ dual-listed stocks, Australia and NZ Bank was down .47, Westpac Bank was down .78, Telstra fell .08, PanPac was down one cent and AMP was down .11.

In Australia, stocks were broadly lower as lower commodity prices weighed on the market as well as Wall Street’s negative lead from Friday.

At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 102.8 points or 2.2 percent at 4,540.4 while the broader All Ordinaries index was down 100.6 points or 2.2 percent at 4,546.3.

In the banking sector, National Australia Bank shares closed down A$0.95 or nearly 3.2 percent after the bank said it completed the purchase of an 80.1 percent stake of Goldman Sachs JBWere’s private wealth management business in Australia and New Zealand.

Elsewhere in the sector, Australia and NZ Bank was down .47, Commonwealth Bank was down $1.34 and Westpac was down .78. Investment bank Macquarie Group was down $2.45 or nearly 5 percent.

In the resources sector, mining giant BHP Billiton was down .74 while rival Rio Tinto was down .99.

Woodside Petroleum was one of the few bright spots, with shares rising .54 after the company announced it would sell its stake in the Otway Gas Project to joint venture partner Origin Energy. Shares of Origin were down .11.

Newly re-listed retailer Myer Holdings opened more than 5 percent lower than its $4.10 listed issue price, closing down .35.
As for the other retailers, Woolworths was down .38, Wesfarmers was down .89, David Jones lost .11, Harvey Norman was down .09 and JB Hi-Fi was down fifty cents.

In overseas trading, Wall Street moved through a volatile up-and-down session. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 76.48 points or 0.79 percent at 9,789.21, the Nasdaq Composite index was ahead 4.09 points or 0.20 percent at 2,049.20 and the S & P 500 index was up 6.66 points or 0.64 percent at 1,042.85.

With the exception of China’s and Indonesia’s, all of the other major Asia/Pacific region markets closed lower on Monday.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 Average declined 231.79 points or 2.31 percent to 9,802.95.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index fell 132.68 points or 0.61 percent.

China’s Shanghai Composite index closed higher by 80.80 points or 2.70 percent at 3,076.65.

The Jakarta Composite index in Indonesia was up 3.94 points or 0.17 percent at 2,371.64.

India’s SENSEX/BSE 30 index was down 156.44 points or 0.97 percent at 15,896.28.

In South Korea, the KOSPI/Seoul Composite index was down 21.60 points or 1.37 percent at 1,559.09.

The Taiwan Weighted Index fell 4.90 points or 0.07 percent to 7,335.18.

For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com

Copyright(c) 2009 RTTNews.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Posted in Categories: Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Releases, Stocks, USA.

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by Email