KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar traded in a narrow band throughout today, as the greenback steadied in Asian trade and the euro struggled to rise.
Around 5pm, the kiwi was buying US75.51c, having moved between about US74.40c and US74.65c during the day.
Data out today showing June residential building consents at the lowest monthly level for 7-1/2 years appeared to have little effect on the kiwi.
Investors were seen to be wary of pushing the NZ currency too high, with the Reserve Bank expected to cut rates further to cushion the struggling economy.
The credit crisis has also started to have an impact on some of the country's main banks.
The NZ dollar showed little movement against other major currencies.
At the local close it was at A77.76c against the Australian dollar from A77.84c at 8.45am today.
Against the yen it was at 79.98 from 80.00, and against the euro at 0.4731 from 0.4730. The trade weighted index was 66.39 at 5pm from 66.37.
The ANZ bank said it expected the NZ dollar to gradually drift higher on the back of US dollar weakness, until a sense of direction could be garnered from US GDP and non-farm payrolls data due out at the end of the week.
Reuters currency rates:
NZ dlr/US dlr US74.51c US74.37c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A77.76c A77.84c
NZ dlr/euro 0.4731 0.4732
NZ dlr/yen 79.98 80.16
NZ dlr/stg 37.38p 37.38p
NZ TWI 66.39 66.39
Australian dollar US95.82c US95.56c
Euro/US dollar 1.5748 1.5719
US dollar/yen 107.35 107.80
- NZPA
