NZ dollar's rise expected to continue

File photo / NZH

After tumbling to its lowest level in almost a week yesterday, the New Zealand dollar pushed higher today and analysts were again talking about a test of the US80c level.

The NZ dollar was near its session high at US78.64c at 5pm, up from US78.16c at 8am and US77.64c at 5pm yesterday.

BNZ markets strategist Mike Jones said there was a lot of data out today in the region and it was all positive for the currency. Chinese data continued a run of good news.

"There was a whole bunch of measures and for the most part they were as strong as expectations or a touch stronger. They joined a pretty solid Australian employment report," he said.

The Australian employment number was stronger than expected but most of the rise was in part time employment.

The Australian dollar was mixed on the employment data but there was solid buying of the NZ dollar against the Australian dollar on the data.

The NZ dollar was at A78.16c at 5pm, up from A77.86c at 8am and A77.50c at 5pm yesterday.

Finance Minister Bill English also said today in response to a question in Parliament that intervention to combat the high New Zealand dollar would probably not succeed.

Mr Jones said this was a green light to the move higher in the NZ dollar.

"I certainly wouldn't rule out a break through 80c in the next week or so," he said.

Future direction would be driven by the comments and decisions of a G20 meeting in Seoul, which starts tonight.

The NZ dollar also rose to 0.5698 euro at 5pm from 0.5649 at the same time yesterday, and lifted to 64.60 yen from 63.44, while the trade weighted index was up to 69.69 from 68.94.

- NZPA