KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar today retraced some of its plunge this week on buying from exporters.
The NZ dollar fell as low as US54.60c early this morning from US58.08c on Tuesday morning but recovered to be US55.60c at 5pm today.
Sentiment was soured yesterday by the negative outlook of the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research's quarterly survey of business opinion.
Business confidence fell to levels last seen in the 1970s, and most believed the worst was to come.
Murray Hindley, ANZ Institutional Bank chief foreign exchange, said comments by Standard & Poor's warning it could downgrade New Zealand's credit rating also had an impact.
"The major driver was the S&P comments yesterday afternoon," he said.
He said there was good demand from local buyers, including exporters, today.
The NZ dollar is expected to be sold in rallies above the US56c figure, with support at the recent low.
The NZ dollar was also down against the Australian dollar to A82.40c at 5pm from A83.07c yesterday. Against the euro it fell to 0.4192 from 0.4211 and against the Japanese yen to 49.73 from 50.21.
The trade weighted index was 55.16 today from 55.57 yesterday.
Currency rates:
5pm today 5pm yesterday
NZ dlr/US dlr US55.60c US56.13c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A82.40c A83.07c
NZ dlr/euro 0.4192 0.4211
NZ dlr/yen 49.73 50.21
NZ dlr/stg 38.20p 38.02p
NZ TWI 55.16 55.57
Aust dlr/US dlr US67.42c US67.58c
Euro/US dlr 1.3257 1.3326
US dlr/yen 89.48 89.43
- NZPA
