The New Zealand dollar closed higher in Wellington this evening, after being little affected by key local inflation data which came in as expected by the market.
At 5pm the kiwi was buying US67.59c from US67.31c at 8.30am and US68.12c at 5pm yesterday. Its low for the day was the US67.17c it touched after the release of June quarter consumer price index (CPI) data this morning, and US 67.63c.
The CPI came in at 0.9 per cent -- exactly as economists had forecast -- leaving the annual inflation rate unchanged from the March quarter at 2.8 per cent -- still uncomfortably close to the top of the 1-3 per cent inflation band the Reserve Bank (RB) is mandated to maintain.
ANZ Investment Bank chief foreign exchange Murray Hindle y said he was surprised to see the kiwi move lower following the data, " given that things were still reasonably tight here in New Zealand".
He said there had been some profit taking on the kiwi's crosses this afternoon, in particular kiwi-aussie.
At 5pm the kiwi was buying A90.01c against A89.78c this morning and A90.31c at 5pm yesterday.
Mr Hindley expected the kiwi would find buyers at US67.20c and sellers at US67.80c during tonight's offshore session. "The general tone seems to be to sell the kiwi on any rally at the moment," he said.
Among the major currencies this evening, the euro was at US$1.2064 (from US$1.2206 at 5pm yesterday), while the greenback was buying 111.86 yen (111.15). The aussie was at US75.13c (US75.55c).
On its crosses the kiwi was fetching 0.5605 euro (0.5590), 38.36 British pence (38.47), 0.8736 Swiss francs (0.8701) and 75.63 yen (75.85).
The TWI was at 68.62 (68.89) and the monetary conditions index at plus 923 (942).
On the money markets, 90-day bank bill yields were at 7.04 per cent (7.03). July 2009 bond yields were at 5.81 per cent (5.85) while the 10 year April 2015s were at 5.76 per cent (5.78).
- NZPA
<EM>Currency:</EM> Kiwi closes higher
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