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 – September 10th, 2026
New Zealand stock market sentiment
Bullish sentiment and bearish sentiment decreased, while neutral sentiment increased, leaving neutral responses as the largest group.
- Bullish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, decreased by 16.2 percentage points to 40.0%.
- Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will essentially stay unchanged over the next six months, increased by 22.5 percentage points to 60.0%.
- Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, decreased by 6.3 percentage points to 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 decreased in six of eight sectors and was unchanged in two of eight sectors.
- The level of optimism among individual investors is highest for energy (80.0%), followed by industrials, health care, IT, and real estate (all at 40.0%) and consumer discretionary (25.0%). The level of optimism is lowest for primary sector (0.0%), followed by financials (20.0%) and consumer discretionary (25.0%).
- The level of neutral sentiment is highest for primary sector (100.0%), followed by financials (80.0%) and consumer discretionary (75.0%). Neutral sentiment is lowest for energy (20.0%), followed by real estate (40.0%) and industrials, health care, and IT (all at 60.0%).
- The level of pessimism is highest for real estate (20.0%), followed by primary sector, energy, industrials, consumer discretionary, health care, financials, and IT (all at 0.0%). Pessimism is lowest for primary sector, energy, industrials, consumer discretionary, health care, financials, and IT (all at 0.0%), followed by real estate (20.0%).
International sentiment
For Australian stocks, bullish sentiment and bearish sentiment decreased, while neutral 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, decreased by 13.3 percentage points to 40.0% for Australian stocks and increased by 11.4 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 20.0 percentage points to 60.0% for Australian stocks and decreased by 10.0 percentage points to 40.0% for U.S. stocks.
- Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, decreased by 6.7 percentage points to 0.0% for Australian stocks and decreased by 1.4 percentage points to 20.0% for U.S. stocks.
New Zealand personal investment sentiment
If investors were to purchase equity, the proportion of investors selecting ‘nothing’ increased compared to last week. Conversely, the proportions of investors selecting small cap shares, selecting large cap shares, selecting funds, and selecting ‘don’t know’ decreased compared to last week.
- The proportion of investors selecting small cap shares decreased by 5.0 percentage points to 20.0% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors selecting large cap shares decreased by 18.8 percentage points to 0.0% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors selecting funds decreased by 3.7 percentage points to 40.0% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors selecting ‘nothing’ increased by 33.8 percentage points to 40.0% this week if they were to purchase equity.
- The proportion of investors selecting ‘don’t know’ decreased by 6.3 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.