NZ sharemarket tumbles early in wake of Dubai debacle

The New Zealand sharemarket tumbled in early trade, following the lead of overseas markets after Dubai's shock call to suspend the debt of a key state company.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 38.61, points, or 1.2 percent, to 3088.7, after an 11.9-point gain yesterday.

Fletcher Building lost 12c to 768 early, Contact Energy fell 10c to 585, Trustpower fell 10c to 740, Ebos Group was down 8c to 570, and Sky TV was down 6c to 459.

Shares falling 4c included Fisher&Paykel Healthcare, down to 315, NZ Refining Co to 451, Nuplex to 245, Sky City to 328, The Warehouse to 411, and Telecom to a seven-month low 238.

F&P Appliances was down 2c to 63, after reporting a net loss for the six months to the end of September of $82.4 million, on asset writedowns and weak sales.

The company said its normalised result was a loss of $847,000, compared to last year's profit of $22.3m. A pick up was expected in the second half of the year with a normalised net profit between $16m and $23m.

Wall Street was closed overnight for the Thanksgiving holiday, while Europe's major stock markets plunged by more than three percent after the Dubai news fuelled anxiety over heavy public borrowing.