NZ dollar climbs to highest since Feb quake

Photo / Dean Purcell

The New Zealand dollar rose as US stocks advanced, helping lift demand currencies seen as higher-yielding, or linked to global growth.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.5 per cent to 1,316.49, lead by Home Depot Inc after the home- improvement retailer sold US$2 billion of bonds to fund a US$1 billion share buyback programme.

The "risk on" mood helped markets shrug off a weaker-than-expected US consumer numbers, which fell to a three month low, and a downgrade of Portugal and Greece's government debt by ratings Agency Standard & Poor's.

"For now the momentum is upwards on the kiwi, but can it maintain that in the multi week timeframe?" said Imre Speizer, market strategist at Westpac Bank. "Our view is that we'll start to see the currency start to ease from next week."

The kiwi rose to 75.63 US cents from 75.19 cents yesterday, and gained to 66.60 on the trade-weighted index of major trading partners' currencies from 65.90.

It rose to 73.56 Australian cents from 73.30 cents yesterday, and rose to 62.31 yen from 61.35 yen. It gained to 53.69 euro cents from 53.25 cents yesterday, and rose to 47.31 pence from 46.93 pence previously.

The euro saw renewed selling pressure in the session falling 0.6 per cent to U.S$1.4106, after S&P lowered Greece's sovereign credit rating to BB- from BB+, and Portugal's rating to BBB-/A-3. BBB- is the lowest investment grade.

The kiwi dollar may trade between a range of 75.40 US cents and 76.60 cents, Speizer said.