Xero's shares fall for third day / The company's shares opened down 6.7 per cent at $16.75 this morning as more than 50,000 shares were exchanged in the open minutes of trading.

Tom Pullar Strecker for Stuff.Co.nz writes: Xero shares have fallen sharply for the third consecutive day on the NZX.

The company's shares opened down 6.7 per cent at $16.75 this morning as more than 50,000 shares were exchanged in the open minutes of trading.

Chief executive Rod Drury said yesterday that the cloud accounting software firm was on track with its strategy and planned to hire at least another 500 staff over the coming year.

Xero currently employs more than 1000 staff, of whom more than 540 are based in New Zealand, spokeswoman Janna Wilkinson said.

By 10.05am, Xero shares had regained some of their losses and were trading down 4 per cent at $17.24.