Where were the best investments of 2024?

7:23 pm on 3 January 2025

Susan Edmunds, Money Correspondent

New Zealand's share market immediately fell two percent on opening

Investors found better returns from international assets this year. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King

If you were looking for the best investment returns of the past year, international assets would have been your top bet.

New data from Morningstar shows that of its database of New Zealand-based investment funds, all but four were "world" or North America-focused.

The others were the top-ranked fund, Vault International Bitcoin Fund, which returned 158.72 percent between the start of January and Boxing Day, Discovery Founders' Fund - an Australasian equity fund, Superlife's Australian financials fund and Pie Funds' Australasian Growth 2 fund.

Among New Zealand stocks, Black Pearl Group was the best returning same period, recording 136.36 percent. It was followed by Being AI and Tower.

"The international stuff has done really well," said Rupert Carlyon, founder of Koura KiwiSaver.

He said, in comparison, it had been a tough year for most New Zealand stocks.

"When you look down that list, the only big ones that have done well are Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and A2 - kind of. You're going a long way down before you get into the bigger companies. You'd argue for the mainstream NX50, for the standard companies in New Zealand, it's been a tough year."

Investment funds with global exposure had done really well, he said. "Particularly US-based stuff.

Anything with a global growth fund in it has done really well."

"It's been a great couple of years to be an investor."

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on January 29, 2024 in New York City. Wall Street observers are watching to see if an upcoming Fed announcement on rate policy and the most recent violence in the Middle East will have any effect on the markets. Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by SPENCER PLATT / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on January 29, 2024 in New York City. Photo: AFP

He said it highlighted that, for most people, the best returns were found by investing in funds.

A standard growth fund with 80 percent of its investments in equities and 20 percent in fixed interest might have 20 percent to 30 percent in local assets.

That was likely to be significantly less than an individual investor going it alone.

"When they do it alone they go with what they know or what has fallen. I know a lot of people through the pandemic said they were investing in Air New Zealand because it fell so far 'it has to bounce'.

"They also invested in Briscoes, that went well, and Kathmandu, which didn't go so well."

Air New Zealand shares have fallen from almost $1.90 at the start of 2020 to about 60c.

Carlyon said it seemed that markets were "sitting on a precipice" again this coming year.

"My view is there's nothing to say we're in for a fall. The US economy is trucking along nicely. Trump, if he enacts half of what he talks about, will be positive on the stock market."

He said he did not expect another year like last year when the S&P500 was up 24 percent over 12 months.

"We should have another good year for international equities and international markets."

It was likely to still be a struggle in New Zealand, he said.

"That's driven by the New Zealand economy. I don't see any rapid turnaround in that market. Also when you look at the structure of the market, you've got a significant chunk of it in gentailers, Spark... it's hard to see what the catalyst is for them to do a whole lot better."

He said investors were likely to be well served by being overweight to the US, Japan and Europe - "that's pretty cheap at the moment but there are massive structural issues."