NZ dollar ends near session high

The New Zealand dollar consolidated in a narrow range at higher levels in quiet trading today.

It fell on Thursday on disappointment that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand did not say more about when it will raise rates. The central bank kept the official cash rate unchanged and said it expected to remove policy stimulus in coming months. The debate continued today about what in coming months means.

On Thursday night, the NZ dollar came back in favour, and was seen as benefitting from ongoing eurozone turmoil.

By 5pm today it was US72.48c, having risen to US72.33c at 8am from US71.66c at 5pm yesterday. It spent most of today between US72.21c and US72.51c.

"It has been a very quiet day," said Murray Hindley, ANZ chief foreign exchange dealer said.

"It closed toward the top end of the range, which bodes well for next week," he said.

Investors are still watching to see if Greece takes austerity measures to open the way for financial aid.

Next week the focus will also be on the Reserve Bank of Australia with the market estimating a 60 per cent chance of a rate rise in Australia on Tuesday. The Henry tax review is also due out in Australia on Sunday.

The NZ dollar was 0.5470 euro at 5pm from 0.5421 at the same time yesterday.

It was at 68.14 yen from 67.27 yen yesterday and was at A77.91c from A77.48c.

The trade weighted index was 67.62 at 5pm from 66.99 yesterday.

- NZPA