Wellington, Nov 17 NZPA - The New Zealand sharemarket opened down and stayed down but did manage to finish off its lows.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed down 25.753 points, or 0.93 percent, at 2741.915. Volume was worth $57.26 million. There were 26 rises and 56 falls.

The market was reflecting trends in offshore markets and it was typically light Monday trading, said Stephen Wright of ASB Securities.

The feature of the session was a 32c fall in Lion Nathan to 1020 after the Australian-based company launched a $A7.6 billion ($NZ9 billion) cash and stock bid for soft drinks group Coca-Cola Amatil. Coca-Cola Amatil said the offer had material weaknesses and looked cheap, based on recent deals. ` `Lion Nathan added a bit of excitement," said Mr Wright.

But the market was still being affected by a lack of investor confidence and trends in offshore markets.

Market leader Telecom eased a cent to 242 and Fletcher Building shed 13c to 564.

Infratil eased 3c to 181 after announcing an interim profit that included a gain from taking a view on the decline of the S&P500 by taking out put, or sell, options.

Other stocks to lose ground included NZ Refining down 25c to 600, Tower 5c to 180, SkyTV 10c to 355, Fisher & Paykel Appliances 3c to 138, Auckland Airport 3c to 170 and Nuplex 9c to 491.

Freightways rose 2c to 310 and SkyCity rose 8c to 306. Ryman rose 4c to 140.

The Japanese market was higher today but the Australian market slumped to a four-year low after Wall Street ended a turbulent week with another astonishing show of volatility on Friday. US stocks plunged, recovered and then plunged again as investors absorbed another wave of downbeat economic news. Analysts believe the US market is still searching for a bottom after last month's huge losses, and that the pattern of volatility will continue for some time -- selling, even on technical reasons like looming deadlines for cashing out hedge fund holdings, is still coming against a backdrop of an extremely weak economy.

The Dow fell 337.93, or 3.82 percent, to 8497.31 at its lows of the day. The Dow fell more than 300 in early trading, recovered to a slim advance and then turned sharply lower at the end of the day as hedge funds cashed out.

Fund investors had a November 15 deadline for withdrawing their money.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 38.00, or 4.17 percent, to 873.29, and the Nasdaq stumbled 79.85, or 5.00 percent, to 1516.85. NZPA WGT agencies pjg nb