Market & Portfolio Update - September 2021
Global share markets experienced some volatility during the month, falling modestly for the first time since January. This was in part due to expectations of rising global interest rates over the coming months. It is worth keeping the month’s performance in context, with global share markets returning almost 15% so far this year.
Global bonds are down modestly for the month (as bond yields rose) after the US Federal Reserve indicated they are getting closer to withdrawing stimulus. In this respect, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand is ahead of the rest of the world, having ended its quantitative easing program months ago and has since raised the Official Cash Rate in October.
The NZ share market ended the month up 0.6% - better than most other developed markets. Performance of the listed travel-related companies was particularly strong, with Kathmandu up 17%, Auckland International Airport up 8.5% and Air New Zealand up 8%.
Market & Portfolio Update - April 2022
Global share markets continued their choppy start to 2022 during April.For New Zealand based investors, a fall in the NZ dollar played an important role in helping offset the volatility global share markets experienced. The NZ dollar fell against most major currencies supporting the returns of unhedged overseas assets (assets that are free to move with exchange rates). As a result, ‘unhedged’ overseas investments fell by only 1.8% for NZ based investors.
The KiwiSaver Gender Divide – Why are women saving less and what can be done to combat this?
Recent data shows that, on average, women have 20% less in their KiwiSavers than men. The gap being at its largest between men and women in their 40s and 50s. There are a few factors that come into play causing this divide and although it will take years to achieve equality, there are ways in which we can be proactive to help close the gap. As of August 2021, the gender pay gap is at 9.1% in New Zealand, a decrease of about 0.4% from 2020’s stats.