Investors feel more confident

It takes more than corporate scandals in the US and plunging share prices to scare New Zealand investors, judging from the latest ASB Bank investor confidence survey.

The survey, for the three months to the end of June, found a net 21 per cent of those who responded expected better investment returns in the year ahead, compared with the past 12 months.

That is up slightly on the net 19 per cent who were confident in the previous survey, and marks a major turnaround from the last quarter of last year, when a net 4 per cent of investors expected things to get worse.

The bank's chief manager of investments, Roger Perry, says optimism has been boosted by the healthy domestic economy, the strong property market and the performance of the sharemarket, which has done better recently than other world sharemarkets.

Asked which type of investment will do best in the next year, 17 per cent of those polled nominated managed funds, then residential property (13 per cent), shares (10 per cent) and term deposits (9 per cent).