Uranium producers and insurers were punished in Australia yesterday as investors reacted to Friday's earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Japan is Australia's second largest export market behind China.
Forsyth Barr broker Peter Young said agricultural companies also fell while steelmakers, oil refiners and clean energy producers were among a handful of companies to gain as the day progressed.
Uranium shares fell after serious problems at some of Japan's nuclear power plants threatened to dampen enthusiasm to build more nuclear power plants around the world, he said.
Australia was the world's third largest uranium producer behind Kazakhstan and Canada, with most production generated at Energy Resources of Australia's Ranger mine and BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam mine.
Energy Resource's shares were down 9.3% during late afternoon trading, and BHP was down 1.3%.
Paladin, which produced yellow cake in Africa plunged 14%.
Extract Resources was not producing any uranium yet, and was not likely to for years, but its shares still fell 8.3% as concern grew about nuclear power's longer term viability, Mr Young said.
Shares in insurer QBE were down after it estimated that net claims in its business arising from the Japanese quake were worth around $US125 million ($NZ170.7 million).
Mr Young said Australian insurers were headed for broker downgrades as analysts started using higher reinsurance claims.
Gunns, which exported woodchips to Asian pulp mills and counted Japanese mills as its biggest customers, fell 10%.
Smaller agribusinesses also suffered with Elders, which exported livestock and managed hardwood plantations, down 7.3%.
"Even with the Dow Jones giving us a positive lead by being up 60 points on Friday, the NZX and ASX have both traded down heavily today.
"While there would have been some genuine profit coming out of the market, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan has been the main catalyst for the markets to drop."
Investors might sit on the sidelines for a few weeks to try to gauge what the impact of Japan would be on the markets.
That, coupled with the Middle East problems and volatile oil prices, was going to make for an interesting few weeks for world stock markets, he said.
