Source: Radio New Zealand
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Last year was a record-breaking year for the do-it-yourself (DIY) Sharesies investment platform, with investors well-positioned for further investments in 2026.
Investor confidence jumped to a three-year high in the last three months of 2025, with the index peaking at 62 in October, before market volatility dampened enthusiasm to end the quarter at 45.
The index ranked the confidence of more than 930,000 Sharesies customers in New Zealand and Australia from zero to 100.
“Record trading in October was followed by subdued sentiment in November and returning stability in December,” Sharesies head of data and analytics Jordan Cunningham said.
Sharesies savings accounts saw an uptick in deposits in November, compared with the buying of shares in October.
However, the share market picked up again following the Reserve Bank’s interest rate cut in late November.
Still, net deposits for 2025 hit a record $1.7 billion at the end of December, compared with $815 million the year before.
“There were several weeks in December where the total amount of deposits were double that of withdrawals,” Cunningham said.
“We’re still really seeing those positive indications of strong net buying over selling and that strong growth in the net deposits.
“This suggests investors were positioning themselves for the year ahead.”
She said an ongoing trend was a declining investor preference for NZX companies, with Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, Meridian Energy and Infratil down in the ranking.
“That has been driven by the increasing focus on US.markets. We have still seen growth in investing in the NZX, but it really hasn’t kept pace with the growth we’ve seen in US markets.
“Almost 80 percent of our trading volumes now are on US [markets], compared with about 10-15 percent in NZX.
“It’s really hard for even those blue chip NZX companies to keep pace with the growth that we’re seeing [in the US], both in trading volumes and also a price.”
By contrast, she said gold-themed, exchange-traded funds saw strong net buying during the quarter.
“Tough to know what’s going to continue, given the global uncertainty that we face really.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
