There was vigorous trade in the New Zealand dollar today after its big move lower last night, with exporters jumping into the market to take advantage of the kiwi's lowest levels in five months.
The kiwi slumped more than one US cent overnight to fall below US70c for the first time since January in a move currency experts said looked like the decisive turning point long awaited by exporters.
By 5pm in Wellington the kiwi was buying US69.81c from US69.54c at 8am and US70.50c at 5pm yesterday.
"It was a very active session," a Wellington dealer said. "Initially there was a lot of interest from exporters, especially on some crosses including kiwi-sterling but most interest from exporters was in kiwi-US."
The kiwi's low for the day was US69.54c and its high was US69.92c.
The kiwi's "impulsive" move lower last night was triggered by a further weakness in the euro, and once important technical support for the kiwi was breached, computer model traders, hedge funds and automatic stop-loss programmes exacerbated its fall.
The euro fell to US$1.2193 in Wellington compared with its US$1.2391 close yesterday. The US dollar was at 108.55 yen against 108.26 yesterday. The aussie also fell -- to US74.99c from US75.53c.
On the crosses the kiwi was buying 0.5723 euro unchanged from yesterday's close, A93.08c (A93.34c), 75.72 yen (76.32), 38.54 British pence (38.73) and 0.8768 Swiss francs (0.8790).
The trade-weighted index fell to 70.16 from 70.56 yesterday and the monetary conditions index was at plus 1032 (1060).
On the money markets, 90-day bank bill yields were at 7.02 per cent (7.01), July 2009s were unchanged at 5.77 per cent, and April 2015s were at 5.65 per cent (5.66).
- NZPA
<EM>Currency:</EM> Exporters jump into Forex market after kiwi slumps
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.