KEY POINTS:
NZX chief executive Mark Weldon invokes investment demigod Warren Buffet when asked about the market's outlook for this year.
"The Warren Buffet quote I always liked, given my background, is: 'If you want to swim really fast find a place where you've got the tide going with you rather than work on your technique.'
"I think over the last three to four years the capital markets have had the tide flowing against them. You've had funds outflow from mutual funds, and you've seen takeovers remove companies.
"Right now the water is still and we actually would expect the water to start moving with increasing speed in favour of the markets.
"The mutual funds sector has had, for the first time in years, positive funds flow into equities. Kiwisaver starts this year, the PIE [portfolio investment entity] tax regime - which we're already seeing flow through positively into stocks - likes the listed property trusts and the offshore tax stuff will happen, which, on the margin, will also be positive for the domestic market.
"We also saw a lot of chatter last year about partial floats of SOEs [state-owned enterprises] or their subsidiaries. Trevor Mallard's made some comments in that direction and there is also speculation around Fonterra's capital structure."
Meanwhile, Forsyth Barr has said investors should not be discouraged from diversifying offshore by the recent changes to the tax treatment of overseas equity investments. The changes were "relatively immaterial", it said, and concerns that could lead investors to steer away from equities outside of New Zealand and Australia were "misguided".
Goldman Sachs' Bernard Doyle and AMP Capital Investors' Guy Elliffe continued to see some risk in the still-uncertain regulatory environment for some big stocks, including market leader Telecom.
