Shares fell in value on Tuesday pushing the New Zealand stock exchange's benchmark NZX 50 down 0.8%.
The index fell 37 points, with declines in the value of 30 stocks, while 10 rose and the remainder was flat.
Wall Street's Dow Jones Index closed down on Friday, and one analyst thinks the local exchange took its lead from the US market last week, after being closed on Monday for the Queen's Birthday holiday.
Hamilton Hinden Greene director and client advisor James Smalley says the market was playing catch-up with the weakness offshore last week.
One of the stocks bucking the trend was the newly listed SLI Systems which surged 20% last week and another 22% on Tuesday to close at $2.18. Mr Smalley says investors are taking the opportunity to snap up tech stock.
Meanwhile, the dollar fell overnight on Tuesday, dropping below US80 cents for the first time in several weeks.
Analysts have been picking the dollar to fall as investors expect the US Federal Reserve to pull back from its programme of quantitative easing.
