Wellington  - The New Zealand stock market - the first in the world to open each day - followed Wall Street and slumped to a four- year low in Thursday morning trading.

The fall of 2.3 per cent in the benchmark NZX 50 index - down 62 points to 2,643 - was much less than in New York, where the blue-chip Dow Jones industrials slipped below
8,000 for the first time since 2003, leaving analysts relieved that the damage was not worse. (dpa)