Currency: Kiwi climbs over US57c

The New Zealand dollar climbed steadily today on better current account figures to put a bumpy night behind it.

At 8am today the kiwi was buying US56.21c, having dropped to around US55.55c last night, before racing up in the following hours to peak near US57.20c then falling away again.

At 5pm it reached US57.53c.

The current account data was slightly better than market expectations and kiwi strengthened coupled with a rise the Dow Jones Index, said ANZ Bank chief foreign exchange dealer Murray Hindley.

The kiwi gained some support after the fourth-quarter current account deficit was in line with market expectations, allaying fears of a large blowout of the deficit that could hurt currency and credit rating.

The kiwi was also up against other main currencies. Against the Australian dollar it was up to A82.30c at 5pm from A80.49c at 5pm yesterday.

Against the euro it was up to 0.42400 from 0.4161 and up against the Japanese yen to 56.24 from 54.85. It was also up against the British pound, to 39.44p from 38.21p.

The trade weighted index rose to 57.07 from 55.74.

The US dollar rose against the yen on Thursday, rebounding from lows hit after US Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner said he was open to expanding the use of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) special drawing rights.

Investors initially interpreted Geithner's remarks on Wednesday as an endorsement of China's proposal this week to eventually replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency with the IMF's SDRs.

Geithner's comments pushed the dollar lower against the euro and the yen on Wednesday, although it regained ground after he said the dollar would keep its status as the top reserve currency for a long time.

The dollar rose 0.3 per cent from late US trading on Wednesday to 97.80 yen. That was up from Wednesday's low of 96.90 yen and last week's one-month low of 93.55 yen hit on trading platform EBS.

The euro dipped 0.2 per cent to $1.3552, having pulled back from Wednesday's high of $1.3653 and last week's two-month high of $1.3739.

Against the yen, the euro was steady at 132.53 yen, having pulled back from a five-month high of 134.50 yen hit earlier this week.


Reuters currency rates:

5pm today 5pm yesterday

NZ dlr/US dlr US57.53c US56.12c

NZ dlr/Aust dlr A82.30c A80.49c

NZ dlr/euro 0.42400 0.4161

NZ dlr/yen 56.24 54.85

NZ dlr/stg 39.44p 38.21p

NZ TWI 57.07 55.74

Aust dlr/US dl 69.86c 69.76c

Euro/US dlr 1.3568 1.3485

US dlr/yen 97.78 97.75

- NZPA