Currency: Bollard remarks lift dollar

The New Zealand dollar traded in a narrow range in today's domestic session of the forex market, but firmed after Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard said New Zealand's economy is likely to recover sooner than many of its trading partners.

The kiwi was trading at US63.36c at 5pm, on a par with its 8am level but US1c higher than 24 hours earlier. It ranged between US63.20c and US63.47c during New Zealand trading hours.

ANZ Institutional Bank chief foreign exchange dealer Murray Hindley said the kiwi strengthened 10 or 15 basis points on the back of Dr Bollard's comments.

In a speech to Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce, Dr Bollard said "some form of recovery is now on the horizon" and it offered the country a chance to get "on to a more economically sustainable track".

Mr Hindley said that today's forex market session was quiet after the strong overnight finish on the US equity market, with the Dow industrial average up 185 points.

"People are awaiting the report of Goldman Sachs' second quarter earnings to see whether strength in the equity markets continues to flow through. Generally in our session trading was range-bound again," he told NZPA.

"Much depends on how equity markets perform in the next 24 hours."

The NZ dollar was trading at A80.90c at 5pm, compared with A80.48c at 5pm yesterday, at 0.4531 euro from 0.4482 yesterday and at 59.03 yen from 57.65 yesterday.

The trade weighted index was at 59.94 at 5pm, up from 59.24 yesterday.

Reuters currency rates:

5pm today 5pm Monday

NZ dlr/US dlr US63.36c US62.36c

NZ dlr/Aust dlr A80.90c A80.48c

NZ dlr/euro 0.4531 0.4482

NZ dlr/yen 59.03 57.65

NZ dlr/stg 38.98 38.73

NZ TWI 59.94 59.24

Aust dlr/US dlr 78.51 77.50c

Euro/US dlr 1.3982 1.3916

US dlr/yen 93.19 92.45

- NZPA