The New Zealand dollar gained as new records on Wall Street spurred a global rally in equity markets and stoked investors' appetite for other risk-sensitive assets.
The kiwi traded at US72.66c at 5pm from US72.56c at 8am, and up from US72.54c on Friday in New York. The trade-weighted index was at 74.85 from 74.93.
Stocks across Asia gained, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng up 1 per cent in afternoon trading, as new records on Wall Street's three major indices - the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 - stoked investor demand for risk-sensitive assets such as commodities and currencies linked to the price of raw materials.
"It's a world where risk assets are doing well. The global economy is in a big synchronised upswing and people are pretty positive and the New Zealand dollar typically performs very well in that environment and the US dollar doesn't," said ANZ Bank New Zealand senior economist Phil Borkin.
While the kiwi is benefiting, Borkin underscored "it's much more a weaker US dollar story rather than anything NZ dollar related".