The New Zealand dollar traded quietly in a tight range today as a major telecommunications outage in the lower North Island kept many players out of the market.
Damage to Telecom's eastern and western fibre optic cables knocked out mobile and broadband internet networks and overloaded land lines throughout much of the country.
"Some of the banks were on a Telstra Clear platform, but for those on a Telecom platform it certainly slowed things up today," ANZ Investment Bank analyst Mark Elliot said.
"It has been pretty quiet in the other currencies as well, so there was nothing to really drag the Kiwi out of its range."
At 5pm, the kiwi was at US71.63c, bang on its opening level. It ranged between US71.09c and US71.78c overnight on Friday.
"Kiwi is pressuring a fairly significant resistance level around this 71.80-72c mark," Mr Elliot said.
"If we start breaking up through this level it could set up another sharp burst higher into the mid 73c mark. It does look like it wants to push higher, overall."
The kiwi continued to nudge 7-1/2 year highs against the British pence. It closed at 39.31 pence (39.17 at Friday's close).
The kiwi trade-weighted index was at 71.65 (71.49). The monetary conditions index was at 1141 (1128 on Friday).
On its other major crosses, the kiwi was at 0.5872 euro (0.5895), 78.10 yen (77.70), 0.9070 Swiss francs (0.9078), and A92.32c (A92.37c).
On the money markets, 90-day bank bill yields were at 7.06 per cent (7.05), July 2009s were at 5.92 per cent (5.93), and April 2015s were at 5.80 per cent (5.79).
- NZPA
<EM>Currency:</EM> Telecom outage keeps players away
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