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 – August 30th, 2026
New Zealand stock market sentiment
Bullish sentiment and bearish sentiment decreased, while neutral sentiment increased, leaving bullish responses as the largest group.
- Bullish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, decreased by 6.5 percentage points to 57.1%.
- Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will essentially stay unchanged over the next six months, increased by 10.4 percentage points to 28.6%.
- Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, decreased by 3.9 percentage points to 14.3%.
New Zealand sector level sentiment
At the sector level, bullish sentiment increased in four of eight sectors and decreased in four of eight sectors. Neutral sentiment increased in four of eight sectors and decreased in four of eight sectors. Bearish sentiment increased in one of eight sectors and decreased in seven of eight sectors.
- The level of optimism among individual investors is highest for primary sector and financials (both at 66.7%), followed by industrials, health care, and IT (all at 50.0%) and energy and consumer discretionary (both at 16.7%). The level of optimism is lowest for real estate (0.0%), followed by energy and consumer discretionary (both at 16.7%) and industrials, health care, and IT (all at 50.0%).
- The level of neutral sentiment is highest for real estate (100.0%), followed by energy (66.7%) and consumer discretionary (50.0%). Neutral sentiment is lowest for primary sector, industrials, and IT (all at 16.7%), followed by health care and financials (both at 33.3%) and consumer discretionary (50.0%).
- The level of pessimism is highest for industrials, consumer discretionary, and IT (all at 33.3%), followed by primary sector, energy, and health care (all at 16.7%) and financials and real estate (both at 0.0%). Pessimism is lowest for financials and real estate (both at 0.0%), followed by primary sector, energy, and health care (all at 16.7%) and industrials, consumer discretionary, and IT (all at 33.3%).
International sentiment
For Australian stocks, neutral sentiment and bearish sentiment decreased, while bullish sentiment increased. For U.S. stocks, bullish sentiment decreased, while neutral sentiment and bearish 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 13.6 percentage points to 50.0% for Australian stocks and decreased by 19.7 percentage points to 16.7% for U.S. stocks.
- Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will stay flat over the next six months, decreased by 3.0 percentage points to 33.3% for Australian stocks and increased by 6.1 percentage points to 33.3% for U.S. stocks.
- Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, decreased by 10.6 percentage points to 16.7% for Australian stocks and increased by 13.6 percentage points to 50.0% 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 small cap shares and large cap shares, and expressing uncertainty about their equity allocation increased compared to last week. Conversely, the proportions of investors planning to increase their investment in funds and anticipating no change in their equity allocation decreased compared to last week.
- The proportion of investors anticipating an increase in their small cap shares increased by 1.3 percentage points to 28.6% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors anticipating an increase in their large cap shares increased by 5.2 percentage points to 14.3% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors anticipating an increase in their funds decreased by 36.4 percentage points to 0.0% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors anticipating no change in their equity allocation decreased by 3.9 percentage points to 14.3% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors who express uncertainty about their equity allocation increased by 33.8 percentage points to 42.9% 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.