NZ dollar eases overnight

Photo / Dean Purcell

The New Zealand dollar eased overnight, as the US dollar continued its comeback.

At 8am the kiwi was buying US76.84c falling from US77.33c yesterday 5pm and a high of US77.77c yesterday morning.

Financial market sentiment nose-dived overnight on the double whammy of rising fears about Asian inflation and ongoing jitters about European debt, BNZ strategist Mike Jones said.

"More rumours of Chinese action to cool inflation pressures saw Asian equity markets dip into the red yesterday," he said.

The US dollar strengthened overnight as sliding equity markets and rising risk aversion encouraged demand for "safe-haven assets", he said.

The NZ dollar climbed to A78.66c against the aussie up from A78.13c yesterday afternoon.

Against the European currency the kiwi was buying 0.5692 just up from 0.5679 yesterday evening, while it fell to 64.05 yen from 64.22 yen at 5pm yesterday.

The trade weighted index was little changed at 69.15 from 69.17.

- NZPA