Currency: Kiwi ends quiet local session a touch firmer

The kiwi closed a touch firmer after an uneventful start to the week during today's local session.

At 5pm, the kiwi was buying US70.71c from US70.50c at 8.30am and US70.57c at Friday's local close. Its range for the day was US70.48c to US70.77c.

A Wellington dealer said it had been a quiet session with the kiwi being bid up slightly towards the close on offshore demand.

Looking ahead, the kiwi's progress would likely be dictated by that of the US dollar following a US Federal Reserve Bank rate call to be announced on Thursday morning New Zealand time.

The Fed is expected to hike rates by one quarter of a per cent.

Locally, the market will be looking to Thursday's National Bank Business Outlook for further news on the state of the economy.

A t 5pm in Wellington, the greenback was buying 109.29 yen (108.96 at 5pm on Friday) and the Australian dollar was at US76.88c (US77.17c).

On its crosses, the kiwi buying A91.98c (A91.45c), 38.77 British pence (38.87), 0.5830 euro (0.5863), 0.8990 Swiss francs (0.9017) and 77.28 yen (76.88).

The trade-weighted index was at 70.92 (70.84), and the monetary conditions index was at plus 1088 (1082).

On the money markets, 90-day bank bill yields were unchanged at 7.04 per cent, July 2009 bonds were at 5.81 per cent (5.83) while April 2015s were steady at 5.68 per cent (5.72).

- NZPA