Currency: Dollar drifts in narrow range

The New Zealand dollar had a fairly lacklustre day after rising to new multi-week highs during the weekend.

By 5pm today the kiwi was buying US52.36c from US52c on Friday. It reached a month-high around US52.70c on Friday night.

BNZ Capital currency strategist Danica Hampton said the currency did not kick on today.

Manufacturing data added to the soft tone. The volume of manufacturing sales fell by a seasonally adjusted record 5.4 per cent in the December quarter compared to the previous three months, Statistics New Zealand said.

"There wasn't a great amount of conviction today," Ms Hampton said.

The NZ dollar traded as low as US52.08c and the high was US52.55c.

The kiwi reached three-week highs against the Australian and European currencies, getting to A79.90c and 0.4075 euros, during the weekend.

At today's local close the NZ dollar was buying A79.78c from A79.48c at 5pm on Friday, and was at 0.4060 euros from 0.4024.

Against the Japanese currency, the kiwi reached a two-month high near 51.90 yen and by 5pm today was at 51.42 yen from 50.76 on Friday.

The trade weighted index was 53.54 from 53.16 on Friday.

Reuters currency rates:

NZ dlr/US dlr US52.36c US52.00c

NZ dlr/Aust dlr A79.78c A79.48c

NZ dlr/euro 0.4060 0.4024

NZ dlr/yen 51.42 50.76

NZ dlr/stg 37.32p 37.34p

NZ TWI 53.54 53.16

Aust dlr/US dl 65.60c 65.43c

Euro/US dlr 1.2893 1.2926

US dlr/yen 98.23 97.60

- NZPA