The New Zealand share market and the Kiwi dollar fell after news that the United States had sent missiles into Syria as investors deserted "riskier" asset and headed towards so called safe haven assets in the United States and Japan.

The NZX-50 was down 0.52 per cent shortly before 1.40pm.

Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craig's Investment said the price action was a natural reaction to events abroad.

"Risk sentiment has turned downward on the back of that," he said. He expected the traditional safe-haven investments, Japanese yen , the US dollar, gold, and US Treasuries to continue to be bought on the back of the news.

"That's a normal and expected reaction to something like this coming out of left field."

"There is a flight to safety going on, with investors getting out of those high-risk asset classes and flocking to the safety of the yen and things like government bonds," he said.

Shares from Tokyo to Sydney pared advances and gold prices have also risen as news of the attack broke, reports Bloomberg.

Australia's stock market has plunged sharply.

The Australian stock market has fallen more than 20 points since the news.

The Australian dollar has also fallen against the US greenback to 75.29 US cents, from 75.44 US cents earlier in the session.

Oil prices have soared.

After tepid trading before the news, Brent crude futures , the international benchmark for oil, jumped to US$55.60 per barrel by 0146 GMT, up 72 cents, or 1.3 per cent from their last close.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures climbed 70 cents, or 1.4 per cent to US$52.40 a barrel.

In the United States, the key US 10 year bond yield, which moves inversely to prices, rallied down to 2.29 per cent from 2.35 per cent before the air strikes.

By mid afternoon the NZ dollar was trading at US69.62c from US69.75c just before the news came through. The currency was faring better than the more actively traded Australian dollar, which dropped by a quarter of a US cent to US75.25c.

Gold jumped 0.8 percent to $1,261.09, following two days of declines, Bloomberg reported.

Westpac senior markets strategist Imre Speizer said the flight to safe haven assets was the "obvious reaction" to events in the Middle East.

The United States has attacked a Syrian air base with 50-60 cruise missiles in response to a chemical weapons attack it blames on President Bashar Assad.

US officials say the Tomahawk missiles were fired from two warships in the Mediterranean Sea, targeting a government-controlled air base in Syria.

With: AAP

-NZ Herald