The New Zealand dollar remained relatively firm today, helped along by hawkish comments from Australia's reserve bank.
At 5pm the kiwi closed against the greenback at US69.11c, just down on its Friday close of US69.02c.
It peaked at US69.18c, holding its ground in the face of stronger than expected payroll data in the United States over the weekend.
Despite the tight range, traders said there had been plenty of volume, partly because of Asian interest in kiwi bonds.
Another positive force was the kiwi-aussie cross, which shifted in New Zealand's favour after comments from cautious comments from the RBA about its economy.
The kiwi jumped more than half a cent from around A89.80c to a close of A90.47c (A89.89.70c on Friday).
Local data out this week included today's Labour Cost Index and Quarterly Employment Survey figures which showed ordinary time earnings were ahead of expectations for the June quarter, up 1.9 per cent.
"It really hasn't been a US dollar story today," ANZ forex trader Glenn Mackersy said.
"The buying out of Asia for the straight kiwi has been relatively bond related so combine that with the demand for the kiwi-aussie cross, there's been two good reasons to buy kiwi, but none of those reason have been dollar related."
On the crosses, the euro was buying US$1.2331 (US$1.2361), while the greenback rose against the yen to 112.40 (111.74).
The Australian dollar gave up some of its recent gains to close on US76.44c (US76.90c).
The kiwi rose to 0.5605 euro (0.5584), 38.95 British pence (38.89), 0.8747 Swiss francs (0.8702) and 77.71 yen (77.12).
The trade weighted index closed on 69.57 (69.29) and the monetary conditions index on 992 (972).
On the money market, 90-day bank bill yields were unchanged on 7.05 per cent, 2009 bond yields opened on 5.87 per cent (5.85), and April 2015s on 5.91 per cent (5.85).
- NZPA
<EM>Currency:</EM> Kiwi strong against hawkish aussie
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