Currency: NZ dollar edges up

The New Zealand dollar rose on a day with little domestic news of note ahead of the Easter holiday weekend.

By 5pm the NZ dollar was buying US58.16c, up from US57.77c at 8am and from US57.30c at 5pm yesterday.

The theme of the week was the ebb and flow of risk appetite among foreign investors. The currency dipped when Wall Street had a bad day and has been strong when investors are more comfortable with the world economic situation. They were at ease today.

BNZ Capital said that even though the NZ dollar has risen from below US50c in early March to nearly US60c it is no raging bull.

"Much of the recent NZ dollar strength is attributable to an improvement in sentiment toward the global economy," BNZ Capital said.

Solid demand out of Japan has also provided a boost and the yen cross has climbed from below 54.00 yen to above 60.00 yen in the past month. It was 58.15 yen at 5pm from 57.35 yen at the same yesterday.

Investors are said to be hesitant about risky assets ahead of US bank earnings reports next week and ahead of the long weekend.

At the end of a week in which Australia cut its benchmark interest rate the NZ dollar was A81.80c from A80.95c yesterday.

The NZ dollar edged up to 0.4386 euro, while the trade weighted index lifted to 58.01 from 57.27 yesterday.

- NZPA