NZ dollar bumps along in greenback's shadow

File photo / NZH

The New Zealand dollar bumped along in the same narrow range it has occupied for a couple of days to finish its first week of the New Year far below its holiday high on January 1, when it was up around US78.13c.

The kiwi today went as low as US75.87 in falls before and after lunch, before clawing its way back to US75.81c around 5pm, down on its 8am rate of US75.87c. Though the performance was subdued, it finished the day marginally up on the US75.68c paid at 5pm Thursday.

Over the past few days the greenback has continued to broadly outperform other currencies amid optimism about the United States economy.

The kiwi was worth A76.34cc against the Australian dollar, up on early trade around A76.09.

It also rose to 0.5834 euros at 5pm from 0.5825, and was up to 63.22 yen at 5pm from 62.12 at 8am, while the trade weighted index was 68.82 at 5pm, from 68.74 at 5pm.

BNZ currency strategist Mike Jones said there had been little new information in currency markets, though a late strengthening in the US dollar overnight had been triggered by a bout of euro selling against the greenback.

Gains by the NZ dollar against the euro, along with solid buying of the kiwi against the aussie from real money and short term speculative accounts, buffered the NZ currency from the broad firming in the US dollar.

- REUTERS reported that the euro tumbled to a five-week low against the US dollar and further losses were seen likely as a round of bond issues next week by peripheral euro zone economies raised concern about their high debt levels.

- NZPA