KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar rallied today on short-covering ahead of the weekend after plunging this week.
The NZ dollar was buying US54.70c at 5pm today from US53.40c at 5pm yesterday. It fell as low as US52.80c overnight.
A day of profit-taking from recent moves was needed to help stabilise the NZ dollar, ANZ economist Philip Borkin said.
Murray Hindley, ANZ Institutional Bank chief foreign exchange, said the profit-taking did eventuate.
``People were a little bit short and with Wellington Anniversary day on Monday some people were taking profits,' he said.
The focus next week will be on inflation data on Tuesday and retail sales data on Wednesday.
The data will be key in determining how much the Reserve Bank of New Zealand can cut interests rates by on January 29, with more and more economists predicting a 100 basis point move.
The NZ dollar was buying 0.4132 euro at 5pm from 0.4055 at local close last night.
Against the Australian dollar the kiwi was A81.10c from A81.30c.
The kiwi was up against the Japanese yen to 49.40 from 47.38.
The Trade Weighted Index was 54.33 from 53.30.
Currency rates:
5pm today 5pm yesterday
NZ dlr/US dlr US54.70c US53.40c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A81.10c A81.30c
NZ dlr/euro 0.4132 0.4055
NZ dlr/yen 49.40 47.38
NZ dlr/stg 37.02p 36.54p
NZ TWI 54.33 53.30
Aust dlr/US dlr US67.45c US65.63c
Euro/US dlr 1.3236 1.3162
US dlr/yen 90.25 88.81
- NZPA
