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 27th, 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 2.6 percentage points to 54.5%.
- Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will essentially stay unchanged over the next six months, increased by 7.8 percentage points to 36.4%.
- Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, decreased by 5.2 percentage points to 9.1%.
New Zealand sector level sentiment
At the sector level, bullish sentiment increased in four of eight sectors, decreased in three of eight sectors, and was unchanged in one of eight sectors. Neutral sentiment increased in four of eight sectors and decreased in four of eight sectors. Bearish sentiment increased in three of eight sectors and decreased in five of eight sectors.
- The level of optimism among individual investors is highest for primary sector (80.0%), followed by energy, health care, and financials (all at 60.0%) and IT (50.0%). The level of optimism is lowest for consumer discretionary and real estate (both at 10.0%), followed by industrials (30.0%) and IT (50.0%).
- The level of neutral sentiment is highest for consumer discretionary (60.0%), followed by energy, health care, and IT (all at 40.0%) and industrials, financials, and real estate (all at 30.0%). Neutral sentiment is lowest for primary sector (10.0%), followed by industrials, financials, and real estate (all at 30.0%) and energy, health care, and IT (all at 40.0%).
- The level of pessimism is highest for real estate (60.0%), followed by industrials (40.0%) and consumer discretionary (30.0%). Pessimism is lowest for energy and health care (both at 0.0%), followed by primary sector, financials, and IT (all at 10.0%) and consumer discretionary (30.0%).
International sentiment
For Australian stocks, neutral sentiment decreased, while bullish sentiment and bearish sentiment increased. For U.S. stocks, neutral sentiment and bearish sentiment decreased, while bullish 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 63.6% for Australian stocks and increased by 33.3 percentage points to 50.0% for U.S. stocks.
- Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will stay flat over the next six months, decreased by 15.2 percentage points to 18.2% for Australian stocks and decreased by 23.3 percentage points to 10.0% for U.S. stocks.
- Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, increased by 1.5 percentage points to 18.2% for Australian stocks and decreased by 10.0 percentage points to 40.0% for U.S. stocks.
New Zealand personal investment sentiment
If investors were to purchase equity, the proportion of investors planning to increase their investment in large cap shares and funds increased compared to last week. Conversely, the proportions of investors planning to increase their investment in small cap shares, anticipating no change in their equity allocation, 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 10.4 percentage points to 18.2% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors anticipating an increase in their large cap shares increased by 3.9 percentage points to 18.2% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors anticipating an increase in their funds increased by 45.5 percentage points to 45.5% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors anticipating no change in their equity allocation decreased by 5.2 percentage points to 9.1% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors who express uncertainty about their equity allocation decreased by 33.8 percentage points to 9.1% 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.