Currency: S & P's rating upgrade boosts dollar

The New Zealand dollar rose to a seven-month high in an ongoing positive reaction to Standard & Poor's decision to upgrade the outlook on New Zealand's credit rating to stable.

The move was helped by weakness in the US dollar on concerns about the size of US government debt. The US dollar was at a five-month low against a basket of currencies in Asian trading today.

The NZ dollar peaked in Thursday night trading around US62.70c, slipped lower, then rose to US62.77c by 5pm today.

It was US61.72c at 5pm yesterday after spiking higher on the news of an improved outlook for Standard & Poor's New Zealand rating.

That news had contrasted with warnings of the possibility of a credit rating downgrade ahead of yesterday's government budget.

ANZ said getting through US62.80c "will not be an easy task".

The NZ dollar climbed to its highest level in more than 6-1/2 months against the Japanese currency, peaking near 60.80 yen post budget. By 5pm it was 60.60 yen from 59.50 yesterday.

Against the euro it was 0.4490 from 0.4466 yesterday.

Against the Australian dollar the NZ dollar was little changed at A79.55c at 5pm from A79.45c yesterday.

The trade weighted index was up to 59.76 from 59.12 yesterday.

Reuters currency rates:

NZ dlr/US dlr US62.77c US61.72c

NZ dlr/Aust dlr A79.55c A79.45c

NZ dlr/euro 0.4490 0.4466

NZ dlr/yen 60.60 59.50

NZ dlr/stg 39.30p 38.76p

NZ TWI 59.76 59.12

Aust dlr/US dlr 78.91c 77.71c

Euro/US dlr 1.3983 1.3815

US dlr/yen 96.55 96.42

- NZPA