KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar came under selling pressure in afternoon trading after surging higher during the weekend.
The NZ dollar raced up nearly 2-1/2 United States cents overnight on Friday after bleak US jobs data spurred hopes Congress would act quickly to pass a stimulus package to help the US economy, reviving investor appetite for risk.
From around US51.2c on Friday evening, the kiwi rose to US53.6c on Saturday morning but today the highest it got to was US53.28c. It closed around session lows at US52.68c.
The NZ dollar demonstrated a bit of strength as the local share market opened firmer.
"But it has given up its gains. We are pretty much closing on the lows," said Murray Hindley, ANZ Institutional Bank chief foreign exchange.
"We have seen some Asian selling that has pushed it back to the lows of the session," he said.
Against the yen the NZ dollar got up to around 49.4, its highest level in 2-1/2 weeks, before slipping to 48.20 yen by today's close.
Against the Australian dollar, the NZ dollar has been in a range between A79c and A78.5c, and by 5pm today was around A78.80c.
The NZ dollar also moved up overnight Friday against the euro to 0.414, its highest level in 2-1/2 weeks, then eased to 0.4075 at 4pm.
The trade weighted index was 52.90 at 5pm today from 51.64 at 5pm on Thursday.
Reuters currency rates:
5pm today 5pm Thursday
NZ dlr/US dlr US52.68c US51.03c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A78.80c A79.30c
NZ dlr/euro 0.4075 0.3975
NZ dlr/yen 48.20 45.60
NZ dlr/stg 35.73 35.37
NZ TWI 52.90 51.64
Aust dlr/US dlr 66.80c 64.34c
Euro/US dlr 1.2929 1.2839
US dlr/yen 91.48 89.40
- NZPA
