The NZX 50 index was down six points, or 0.2%, at lunchtime on Thursday to settle at 2984 on turnover of $27 million.
Telecom was up 2 cents to $2.83, Fletcher Building was down 12c to $6.95 and Contact Energy was unchanged at $6.22.
Pumpkin Patch was down 1c to $1.55, Sky Television was down 2c to $4.38 and New Zealand Oil and Gas was down 3c to $1.57.
The dollar was trading at 64.98 US cents, 79.6 Australian cents, 39.66 pence, 61.91 yen and 0.4629 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was 61.1.
Across the Tasman, the Australian 200 index was up seven points, or 0.2%, to 4149 in early trading.
Stocks on Wall Street have nose-dived as the market turned its focus away from domestic corporate and economic news to China, where markets fell in their worst session of the year, with Shanghai down 5%.
The Dow Jones Index has fallen 46 points, or 0.5%, to 9050, while the Nasdaq Composite has slipped 11 points, or 0.6%, to 1963.
European stock exchanges defied the slide on Wall Street to close higher, with the London FTSE 100 index gaining 0.4% to end on 4547 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 rose 1% to close at 3365, while the Frankfurt Dax added 1.9% to finish at 5270 points.
Brent crude Oil was trading at $US66 a barrel, and gold at $US926 an ounce.
