KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar remained stuck below US70c today, and eased against the Australian dollar despite a Reserve Bank of Australia interest rate cut.
By 5pm, the kiwi was at US69.30c from US69.59c late yesterday afternoon. Against the Aussie, it slipped to A81.25c from A81.55c.
"Certainly for the last part of the session, it's been dictated by moves in the Australian dollar after the RBA announcement," said Murray Hindley, ANZ Institutional Bank chief foreign exchange dealer.
"The RBA was certainly less dovish than the market was expecting, so obviously we've seen Aussie strengthen as a result."
The kiwi was struggling to regain the US70c level it last traded at on Friday.
The Aussie recovered from an earlier one-year low against the US dollar after the RBA cut its official cash rate by 25 basis points to 7 per cent, as expected, and gave no signal of any further rate cuts.
The US dollar hit an eight-month high against a basket of major currencies, getting a boost from a sharp drop in oil prices on expectations that Hurricane Gustav's damage to US energy facilities may be less than feared.
Sterling and the euro fell further after European Union leaders agreed on Monday to postpone talks on a new EU-Russia partnership until Moscow withdraws its troops to pre-conflict positions in Georgia, traders said.
Trading conditions were less liquid than usual overnight as US markets were closed for the Labour Day holiday.
Currency rates:
NZ dlr/US dlr US69.30c US69.59c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A81.25c A81.55c
NZ dlr/euro 0.4752 0.4756
NZ dlr/yen 75.01 75.50
NZ dlr/stg 38.68p 38.60p
NZ TWI 65.01 65.22
Australian dollar US85.26c US85.30c
Euro/US dollar 1.4579 1.4632
US dollar/yen 108.26 108.53
- NZPA
