Currency: Kiwi dips slightly after near 6-year high

5.40pm

The kiwi eased slightly during today's local session after ascending to a near six-year-high last night.

By 5pm in Wellington, the kiwi was at US59.90c down slightly from US59.95c at yesterday's local close. The aussie was at US69c from US69.32c late yesterday.

ANZ Investment Bank's Glenn Mackersy said today had been a range day for the kiwi which traded between US59.70c and US59.93c.

The kiwi ran up as high as US60.38c during last night's offshore session but quickly retreated to below the key US60.25 resistance level.

" I think still at the US60.20c juncture the market is still reasonably wary of the kiwi's ability to actually keep trudging higher.

"However on dips to the US59.60-70c level it's still good value.

"There's really nothing in terms of fundamentals that have changed to push the kiwi any lower than that", he said.

Mr Mackersy expected the kiwi to trade in a US59.70c to US60.20c range tonight.

In Wellington by 5pm the euro was at US$1.1738 from US$1.1835 yesterday, while the US dollar was at 109.19 yen (109.16).

On the crosses, the kiwi was buying A86.82c (A86.49c yesterday), 65.41 yen (65.44), 0.5104 euro (0.5064), 35.99 pence (36.03), and 0.7899 Swiss francs (0.7841).

The Australian dollar eased against the kiwi to buy $1.1517 ($1.1564).

The monetary conditions index was at plus 226 (216), the trade-weighted index was at 61.94 (61.81), and 90-day bank bill yields were at 5.19 per cent (5.20).

The February 2005 government bond yields were unchanged at 5.38 per cent, the November 2006s were also unchanged at 5.67, and the November 2011s were at 6.00 per cent (5.98).

- NZPA