The S&P NZX 50 opened 4.3 percent down on Tuesday morning and had dropped by 4.93 percent at 9007.220 within the first half-hour.
At 11am, Tourism Holdings was down 0.75 percent, Auckland Airport by 6.13 percent and Mainfreight by 5.42 percent. Air New Zealand remained in a share trading halt while the company assessed the impacts of travel restrictions.
Mohandeep Singh, senior research analyst at Craigs Investment Partners, said that as Monday was down 3.6 percent, Tuesday's drop isn't surprising.
"A number of companies have come out today and withdrawn their earnings guidance in NZ, for example, Auckland Airport and Vista have withdrawn and cancelled their interim dividend [and] Gentrack has also withdrawn.
"Mainfreight, Skellerup and NZ King Salmon have said 'no change' to their existing guidance at this stage," Singh said.
Tuesday's biggest falls in share prices were Heartland Group, down 16.53 percent, Vista, down 13.79 percent, Kiwi Property, down 11.79 percent, Pushpay Holdings, down 11.35 percent and Summerset, down 11.2 percent.
Genesis Energy was down 9.89 percent and Chorus by 9.35 percent.
Tuesday's drop follows sinking stocks in the US as Wall Street suffered its biggest drop since the coronavirus crisis began.
Reuters said that investors fear that the coronavirus pandemic is a tougher opponent than central banks, lawmakers or the White House are capable of battling.
"It's a market adrift with nothing to hold on to", Jeffrey Kleintop, chief global investment strategist at Charles Schwab told Reuters.
"There's nothing that can really give us a sense of when the full extent of the virus' impact will be known."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2,997.1 points, or 12.93 per cent, to 20,188.52, the S&P 500 lost 324.89 points, or 11.98 per cent, to 2,386.13 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 970.28 points, or 12.32 per cent, to 6,904.59.
More to come.
