This collaboration between NZSA and University of Canterbury (UC) Business School is part of our mission to promote a thriving market and to be the voice of investors. A sentiment index will contribute to the understanding of investor behaviour and the overall market and allow you to get first access to the data and make better-informed investment decisions.
Have your say!
Each week, a random selection of NZSA members are sent an email to complete the survey. If you wish to participate in the NZ Investor Sentiment Index Survey anyway, you can click on this link anytime – also contained in each Briefing newsletter. The sentiment survey is conducted weekly from Thursday 12:01am to Wednesday 11:45pm.
This Week’s Results:
This week’s commentary – July 9th, 2026
New Zealand stock market sentiment
Neutral sentiment and bearish sentiment decreased, while bullish sentiment increased, leaving bullish responses as the largest group.
- Bullish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, increased by 46.7 percentage points to 80.0%.
- Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will essentially stay unchanged over the next six months, decreased by 38.3 percentage points to 20.0%.
- Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, decreased by 8.3 percentage points to 0.0%.
New Zealand sector level sentiment
At the sector level, bullish sentiment increased in seven of eight sectors and decreased in one of eight sectors. Neutral sentiment increased in three of eight sectors and decreased in five of eight sectors. Bearish sentiment decreased in eight of eight sectors.
- The level of optimism among individual investors is highest for IT (85.7%), followed by primary sector (78.6%) and energy (50.0%). The level of optimism is lowest for financials and real estate (both at 21.4%), followed by consumer discretionary (28.6%) and industrials (33.3%).
- The level of neutral sentiment is highest for financials (64.3%), followed by industrials (58.3%) and health care (57.1%). Neutral sentiment is lowest for IT (0.0%), followed by primary sector (14.3%) and consumer discretionary and real estate (both at 35.7%).
- The level of pessimism is highest for real estate (42.9%), followed by consumer discretionary (35.7%) and financials and IT (both at 14.3%). Pessimism is lowest for energy (0.0%), followed by primary sector and health care (both at 7.1%) and industrials (8.3%).
International sentiment
For Australian stocks, neutral sentiment and bearish sentiment decreased, while bullish sentiment increased. For U.S. stocks, bearish sentiment decreased, while bullish sentiment and neutral sentiment increased. The two markets diverged in at least one sentiment category.
- Bullish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, increased by 33.8 percentage points to 53.8% for Australian stocks and increased by 31.4 percentage points to 71.4% for U.S. stocks.
- Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will stay flat over the next six months, decreased by 9.2 percentage points to 30.8% for Australian stocks and increased by 1.4 percentage points to 21.4% for U.S. stocks.
- Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, decreased by 24.6 percentage points to 15.4% for Australian stocks and decreased by 32.9 percentage points to 7.1% for U.S. stocks.
New Zealand personal investment sentiment
If investors were to purchase equity, the proportions of investors planning to increase their investment in large cap shares and funds, and anticipating no change in their equity allocation increased compared to last week. Conversely, the proportions of investors planning to increase their investment in small cap shares and expressing uncertainty about their equity allocation decreased compared to last week.
- The proportion of investors anticipating an increase in their small cap shares decreased by 10.0 percentage points to 20.0% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors anticipating an increase in their large cap shares increased by 10.0 percentage points to 20.0% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors anticipating an increase in their funds increased by 6.7 percentage points to 26.7% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors anticipating no change in their equity allocation increased by 3.3 percentage points to 13.3% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors who express uncertainty about their equity allocation decreased by 10.0 percentage points to 20.0% this week if they were to purchase equity.
Historic Data
There have been wide variations since the survey began (January 2020) in Investor Sentiment. The following chart shows:
- the lowest recorded response for each type of sentiment (the lower ‘whisker’)
- the recorded responses between 25th – 75th percentile (the ‘box’)
- the median response score – ie, exactly 50% of scores are above and below this number
- the maximum response (excluding ‘outliers’)
- Interestingly, NZ Investors have displayed a greater tendency towards expressing “negative” (bearish) sentiment since the survey’s inception.