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 – June 25th, 2026
New Zealand stock market sentiment
Bullish sentiment decreased, neutral sentiment increased, and bearish sentiment was unchanged, leaving sentiment more evenly split.
- Bullish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, decreased by 50.0 percentage points to 50.0%.
- Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will essentially stay unchanged over the next six months, increased by 50.0 percentage points to 50.0%.
- Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, was unchanged at 0.0%.
New Zealand sector level sentiment
At the sector level, bullish sentiment increased in two of eight sectors and decreased in six of eight sectors. Neutral sentiment increased in six of eight sectors and decreased in two of eight sectors. Bearish sentiment increased in two of eight sectors and was unchanged in six of eight sectors.
- The level of optimism among individual investors is highest for primary sector and energy (both at 83.3%), followed by IT (60.0%) and health care (50.0%). The level of optimism is lowest for consumer discretionary and real estate (both at 0.0%), followed by industrials (16.7%) and financials (40.0%).
- The level of neutral sentiment is highest for real estate (100.0%), followed by consumer discretionary (66.7%) and financials (60.0%). Neutral sentiment is lowest for primary sector and energy (both at 16.7%), followed by IT (40.0%) and industrials and health care (both at 50.0%).
- The highest level of pessimism is recorded for industrials and consumer discretionary (both at 33.3%). These are followed by primary sector, energy, health care, financials, IT, and real estate, which jointly represent the lowest level at 0.0%.
International sentiment
For Australian stocks, bullish sentiment and bearish sentiment decreased, while neutral 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 46.7 percentage points to 20.0% for Australian stocks and decreased by 10.0 percentage points to 40.0% for U.S. stocks.
- Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will stay flat over the next six months, increased by 63.3 percentage points to 80.0% for Australian stocks and increased by 6.7 percentage points to 40.0% for U.S. stocks.
- Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, decreased by 16.7 percentage points to 0.0% for Australian stocks and increased by 3.3 percentage points to 20.0% 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 and funds increased compared to last week. Conversely, the proportions of investors planning to increase their investment in large cap shares and expressing uncertainty about their equity allocation decreased compared to last week. Meanwhile, the proportion of investors anticipating no change in their equity allocation remained the same.
- The proportion of investors anticipating an increase in their small cap shares increased by 16.7 percentage points to 33.3% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors anticipating an increase in their large cap shares decreased by 16.7 percentage points to 16.7% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors anticipating an increase in their funds increased by 16.7 percentage points to 50.0% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors anticipating no change in their equity allocation was unchanged at 0.0% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors who express uncertainty about their equity allocation decreased by 16.7 percentage points to 0.0% 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.