The following is a summary of investment market activity over the month of October 2008, extracted from the Selected Market Indicators document produced by Mercer.

NZ Shares
The NZ sharemarket fell 8.7% over October (as represented by the NZX 50 Index with Imputation Credits). The NZX 50 has returned -31.7% for the past year. The smaller companies index fell 25.7% over the past year.

Overseas Shares
The MSCI World Index (unhedged) fell 6.9% during October and fell 23.0% over the past 12 months. In local currency terms, Japan was the worst performing market over the month, falling 21.1% (MSCI Japan in Yen).

The MSCI Value Index fell 6.4% and the MSCI Growth Index fell 7.4% during the month (where both are unhedged in NZD).

Property
NZ listed property fell 9.3% during the month of October, while the Mercer Unlisted Property Index fell 1.4% over the same period. Global listed property (hedged in NZD) fell 30.1% over the month.

Fixed Interest
Hedged overseas fixed interest (as measured by the Lehman Global Aggregate Index hedged into NZD) fell 0.5% over the month while NZ fixed interest (as measured by the NZX NZ Government Stock Index) fell 0.6% over the same period. Locally, yields on 90-day bank bills fell to 7.1% and ten year yields rose to 6.0%. The US 10 year bond yield rose, ending the month at 4.0%.

Currency
The NZ dollar fell 13.0% against the US Dollar, 19.4% against the Yen, 4.0% against the Pound and 3.6% against the Euro. The NZ dollar rose 4.0% against the Australian dollar. On a trade weighted basis the NZ dollar fell 6.5% in October.