Currency: Kiwi closes on its lows

The New Zealand dollar closed on its lows today in a largely featureless market.

At 5pm, the kiwi was buying US68.58c, down on an intraday high of US68.78c, and a touch above last night's US68.52c close.

The local unit was little moved by today's widely-expected decision by Reserve Bank of Australia to leave interest rates unchanged for the fifth straight month at 5.5 per cent.

The Australian dollar closed locally at US76.34c (US75.32c at 5pm yesterday).

Most economists expect Australia's cash rate to remain on hold for at least the rest of the year.

Local dealers said the Kiwi was underpinned by $50 million five year eurokiwi and two uridashi issues totalling $72 million. Eurokiwis and uridashis are New Zealand dollar denominated bonds sold to European and Japanese investors.

The Kiwi hit a high of US68.78c today, but failed to reach yesterday's US68.85c peak and lost its steam late in the day as the US dollar bounced back after an early fall.

Traders were focused on Friday's payroll figures, the week's big data, for signs the US Federal Reserve could keep hiking rates next year.

Analysts expect another month of employment gains, with median estimates pointing to the creation of about 183,000 jobs.

The Fed has already raised rates at nine straight policy meetings, taking the key rate to 3.25 per cent.

At 5pm in Wellington the euro was at US$1.2164 (US$1.2207 late yesterday), while the US dollar was at 111.85 yen (111.93).

On its crosses, the kiwi was at A89.85c (A89.80c), 0.5638 euro (0.5615), 38.83 British pence (38.70), 0.8780 Swiss francs (0.8745) and 76.71 yen (76.70).

The TWI was at 69.25 (69.10) and the monetary conditions index at plus 968 (958).

On the money market, 90-day bank bill yields were at 7.03 per cent (7.04), the 2009 bond yields were steady at 5.81 per cent, and April 2015s at 5.82 per cent (5.81).

- NZPA