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 16th, 2026
New Zealand stock market sentiment
Bullish sentiment decreased, while neutral sentiment and bearish sentiment increased, leaving bullish responses as the largest group.
- Bullish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, decreased by 37.1 percentage points to 42.9%.
- Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will essentially stay unchanged over the next six months, increased by 18.1 percentage points to 38.1%.
- Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, increased by 19.1 percentage points to 19.1%.
New Zealand sector level sentiment
At the sector level, bullish sentiment increased in one of eight sectors and decreased in seven of eight sectors. Neutral sentiment increased in six of eight sectors and decreased in two of eight sectors. Bearish sentiment increased in five of eight sectors and decreased in three of eight sectors.
- The level of optimism among individual investors is highest for IT (55.0%), followed by primary sector and energy (both at 40.0%) and financials (35.0%). The level of optimism is lowest for consumer discretionary (5.0%), followed by real estate (15.0%) and industrials (20.0%).
- The level of neutral sentiment is highest for industrials, consumer discretionary, and health care (all at 60.0%), followed by real estate (55.0%) and financials (50.0%). Neutral sentiment is lowest for primary sector (35.0%), followed by IT (40.0%) and energy (45.0%).
- The level of pessimism is highest for consumer discretionary (35.0%), followed by real estate (30.0%) and primary sector (25.0%). Pessimism is lowest for IT (5.0%), followed by health care (10.0%) and energy and financials (both at 15.0%).
International sentiment
For Australian stocks, bullish sentiment and neutral sentiment decreased, while bearish 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, decreased by 18.9 percentage points to 35.0% for Australian stocks and decreased by 36.4 percentage points to 35.0% for U.S. stocks.
- Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will stay flat over the next six months, decreased by 0.8 percentage points to 30.0% for Australian stocks and increased by 8.6 percentage points to 30.0% for U.S. stocks.
- Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, increased by 19.6 percentage points to 35.0% for Australian stocks and increased by 27.9 percentage points to 35.0% 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 small cap shares, large cap shares, and funds increased compared to last week. Conversely, the proportions of investors 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 increased by 2.2 percentage points to 22.2% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors anticipating an increase in their large cap shares increased by 7.8 percentage points to 27.8% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors anticipating an increase in their funds increased by 1.1 percentage points to 27.8% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors anticipating no change in their equity allocation decreased by 2.2 percentage points to 11.1% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors who express uncertainty about their equity allocation decreased by 8.9 percentage points to 11.1% 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.