The New Zealand dollar continued to soften throughout the local session, on the back of technical pressure and yesterday's hard hitting speech by Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard.
The kiwi softened against both the aussie and the greenback. It fell to A93.29c at 5pm today, from A93.91c at the same time yesterday.
Against the US dollar at 5pm today the kiwi was fetching US69.20c, from S69.33c at 8.30am today, and US69.73c at yesterday's local close.
BNZ currency strategist Sue Trinh put much of today's fall down to a technical correction.
"The kiwi has been running into some pretty solid selling pressure on every rally, so it's really battling following the break lower through that key US69.80c area that was previously very strong support," Ms Trinh said.
Sentiment was also dented by Dr Bollard's speech yesterday in which he said the kiwi was exceptionally high and would fall. There was little reaction to the speech yesterday afternoon, but Dr Bollard's warnings gained some traction in the offshore market.
Although the US dollar was up against a basket of currencies, including the kiwi, it softened against euro ahead of European Central Bank meeting later on Thursday.
The ECB isn't expected to raise interest rates from 2 per cent, but analysts will look for further warnings about euro-zone inflation.
The following are Reuters currency rates:
5pm today 5pm (Wednesday)
NZ dlr US69.20c US69.73c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A93.29c A93.91c
NZ dlr/euro 0.5735 0.5792
NZ dlr/yen 80.89 81.41
NZ dlr/stg 38.98p 39.48p
NZ TWI 70.93 71.50
Australian dollar US74.18c US74.27c
Euro/US dollar US1.2068 US1.2034
US dollar/yen 116.86 116.76
- NZPA
<EM>Currency:</EM> Kiwi falls against aussie and greenback
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