The New Zealand dollar eased slightly today in local trade having followed its Australian counterpart lower.
At 5pm in Wellington the kiwi was buying US71.73c from US71.87c at 8.30am this morning and US71.45c at 5pm last night. It traded in a US71.93c to US71.60c range today.
ANZ Investment Bank senior dealer Mark Elliott said the kiwi had opened near its highs and traded down toward its lows, tracking its Australian counterpart.
The aussie was sold off against the US currency on comments about Australia's interest rate outlook from Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor Ian Mcfarlane.
Speaking in his semi-annual parliamentary testimony Mr Mcfarlane -- somewhat obtusely -- said, "...it was unlikely that there wouldn't be further interest rate increases".
"In other words it would be a very unusual eventuality for that not to occur."
Mr Elliott said the aussie had recently found support in the market from the prospect of imminent rate hikes, "and I think those comments eased that a little bit although they (the RBA) are still on a tightening bias".
The aussie ended our local session at US78.43c from US78.87c this morning and US78.48c at 5pm yesterday.
Meanwhile, the kiwi firmed against the aussie and at 5pm it was buying A91.43c (A91.06c at 5pm yesterday).
Elsewhere, the euro was at $US1.3071 ($US1.3044), and the greenback was at 105.47 yen (105.27).
On the crosses, the kiwi was buying 0.5487 euros (0.5479), 37.86 British pence (37.90) 75.63 yen (75.22) and 0.8493 Swiss francs (0.8481).
The monetary conditions index was at plus 982 (968), and the trade-weighted index was at 69.69 (69.48).
On the money markets, 90-day bank bill yields were at 6.85 percent (6.86), July 2009 bonds were at 6.10 percent (6.11), and April 2015s were at 5.94 percent (5.95).
- NZPA
<EM>Currency:</EM> Aussie sell off drags kiwi lower
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