NZ dollar rides US69c range

The New Zealand dollar pushed through the US69c level and rode rampant for much of the day after hitting 12-month highs against the greenback and euro.

The kiwi climbed as high as US69.35c overnight , but by 5pm had fallen back to US69.11c.

Though it has failed several times over the past fortnight to get through the US69c level despite reaching US68.90c several times, it succeeded in a session affected by the Labor Day holiday in the United States.

The overnight climb happened about 7pm on Monday, taking the NZ dollar in a 30-minute burst from US68.80c to above US69.20c, where it stayed for most of the rest of the time until 8am, when it was buying US69.30c. From there, it crawled back down towards the US69c mark

BNZ Capital senior strategist Danica Hampton said short term speculators took advantage of the holiday-thinned trading to gun for the reported option barrier at US69c, and this breakthrough triggered a rush of stop-loss buying.

Ms Hampton noted the recent strength of the NZ dollar had been accompanied by a growing conviction that the New Zealand economy will emerge from recession later this year.

The NZ dollar climbed as high as 0.4837 euro from 0.4801 at 5pm yesterday, and by 8am was at 0.4832 but finished the day back at 0.4821.

Against the Australian dollar the kiwi rose to A80.96c by 8am and dropped back a little to A80.86 at 5pm, while the NZ dollar subsided over the same period from 64.42 yen to 64.11 yen -- almost exactly its level 24 hours earlier.

The trade weighted index lifted to 63.92 at 8am then fell back to 63.75 at 5pm, still slightly above yesterday.

- NZPA