Currency: Dollar hovering just below US60c

The New Zealand dollar tracked sideways against the greenback after hitting a six-month high last night, with traders watching for a possible rise tonight.

The New Zealand dollar was trading at US59.97c at 5pm today, after falling from a six-month high of US61.25c overnight.

After the kiwi hit a new high during early Europe trading, it fell away then stabilised at 60 cents for most of the day, said Imre Speizer, Westpac's senior market strategist.

"If you look at it from our opening through to where it is now, it has largely tracked sideways and done nothing," he said.

However, eyes would tonight be watching the "big daddy of them all", the S&P futures index.

"We're possibly in for a turn in the risk rally we've seen. Should we see a fall in the S&P tonight, I think we'll see this risk rally continue.

"If the futures go down, we could see the New Zealand dollar go even higher," he said.

Against other currencies, the New Zealand dollar traded at 79.10 Australian cents, 44.14 euro cents, 58.35 yen and 39.68 pence.

It dropped against all currencies - at 5pm yesterday, the New Zealand dollar traded at A79.4c, 0.4470 euro cents, 60.08 yen and 40.08 pence.

The trade weighted index was down about 0.8, charting at 58.29 at close of business today from 59.15 yesterday.

The news released today was "more positive than not" for the kiwi, including Real Estate Institute of NZ April figures, showing a rise in both prices and volumes of houses sold. There were also growing indications from Parliament that the budget will not be as nasty as initially suspected and be "reasonably appeasing of the S&P rating agency", he said.

The broad rebound in the US dollar from a four-month low came as a global decline in stock prices boosted the greenback's safe-haven appeal and investors bought the currency after a sharp sell-off last week.

Renewed risk aversion also boosted demand for the Japanese yen, which gained versus the euro and the greenback, as well as against higher-yielding currencies such as the New Zealand dollar.

Currency rates:

NZ dlr/US dlr US59.97c US60.99c

NZ dlr/Aust dlr A79.10c A79.40c

NZ dlr/euro 0.4412 0.4470

NZ dlr/yen 58.35 60.08

NZ dlr/stg 39.68p 40.08p

NZ TWI 58.29 59.15

Aust dlr/US dlr 75.80c 76.83c

Euro/US dlr 1.3591 1.3640

US dlr/yen 97.25 98.45

- NZPA