The New Zealand sharemarket has fallen to its lowest level in more than a year following slides in Wall Street on Friday and the Reserve Bank’s latest move to shore up the economy.
The benchmark NZX Top 50 index has fallen about 450 points, or 4.9 percent, in early trading.
The market is now at its lowest level since January 2019.
Once again virtually every stock in the index has fallen with tourism, travel, and hospitality businesses showing some of the biggest falls.
Casino operator Sky City is the hardest hit, falling more than 12 percent.
It’s been forced to shut its Adelaide casino because of the federal government’s order, and is preparing for a similar ban to hit its New Zealand operations.
Early on Monday morning, the Reserve Bank said its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to implement a large scale asset purchase programme (LSAP) of New Zealand government bonds.
The Bank’s statement said the asset purchase would take place over the next 12 months and involve up to $30 billion of New Zealand government bonds across a range of maturities in the secondary market.
This article was originally published on RNZ and re-published with permission.
