House Prices

Wide range of shares best bet - Mary Holm

Q. I found an article in the Herald this week by Ellen Read disturbing.

She says New Zealand stock is getting overvalued and "the capital NZSX-all index is at 908.5 - its highest since October 1997 and just below the all-time high of 921 just before the 1987 crash".

I only have New Zealand dividend-yield stock in case the market crashes, as I have been told I will

Friday, July 16th 2004

still get my dividend whatever happens and, eventually, they will rise in value again.

I think I would still find it hard not to panic if my Contact Energy shares were suddenly worth 50 cents each.

What do you think of the high position of the market at the moment? Are we in danger of a crash?

A. I don't know. I could ring lots of market analysts and report back what they said. But history shows that nobody is all that good at predicting share market movements.

Having said that, crashes tend to follow periods of extraordinary growth. And we haven't had that.

The fact that the index is close to its 1987 peak is nothing to worry about. If anything, we should worry that it didn't get there years ago. Most of the world's big share markets topped their 1987 peaks within a year or two of the crash.

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Unity First Home Buyer special 3.99
ICBC 4.25
SBS FirstHome Combo 4.29
Co-operative Bank - First Home Special 4.35
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 4.45
TSB Special 4.49
ANZ Special 4.49
ASB Bank 4.49
SBS Bank Special 4.49
Unity Special 4.49
Westpac Special 4.49
Westpac Special 4.45
BNZ - Std 4.49
Kiwibank Special 4.49
TSB Special 4.49
ANZ Special 4.49
ASB Bank 4.49
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 4.49
ICBC 4.59
Wairarapa Building Society 4.59
SBS Bank Special 4.65
Unity Special 4.65
SBS Bank Special 4.99
Westpac Special 4.99
ICBC 4.99
BNZ - Std 4.99
ASB Bank 5.15
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 5.19
ANZ 5.39
AIA - Go Home Loans 5.39
TSB Special 5.39
Kiwibank Special 5.39
Kainga Ora 5.49
SBS Construction lending for FHB 3.74
CFML 321 Loans 4.25
AIA - Back My Build 4.44
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 5.30
Co-operative Bank - Standard 5.30
ICBC 5.39
Heartland Bank - Online 5.45
Kiwibank - Offset 5.80
Kiwibank 5.80
ANZ 5.89
TSB Special 5.94

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