NZ dollar settled

The New Zealand dollar drifted off a one-week high around US72.70c today as investors waited for stress test reports from European regulators.

It surged on Thursday night after strong euro zone economic data and US corporate earnings rekindled investors' appetite for risk.

By 5pm the NZ dollar was at US72.42c, little changed from the US72.45c at 8am and up sharply from to US71.32c at 5pm yesterday.

Attention is also turning to next week's official cash rate decision by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.

The NZ dollar pushed to its highest level in a week against the European currency early today, around 0.5635 euro, from 0.5580 euro at 5pm yesterday. By 5pm today it was 0.5616.

Data showed surprisingly robust growth in European manufacturing and services, but there was also uncertainty ahead of European bank stress test results.

Similarly, the NZ dollar reached a one-week high around 63.30 yen, easing to 62.93 by the local close, having climbed from 61.64 yen at 5pm.

The NZ dollar fell to A81.16c against the Australian dollar at 5pm from A81.31c yesterday.

The trade weighted index rose to 67.90 from 67.26 yesterday.

- NZPA