5.42pm
The New Zealand dollar got a leg up into the US65c band today, thanks to weaker than expected retail sales figues released in Australia.
At 5pm, the kiwi was at US65.13c, from US64.90c this morning. Last night it closed at US65.30c.
A Bank of New Zealand currency spokesman said the kiwi ranged between US64.50c and US65.24c today.
The Australian dollar was at US69.83c (from US70.07c at 5pm yesterday).
Weaker than expected retail sales numbers released in Australia today caused a sell off in the aussie, while the kiwi dipped, the BNZ spokesman said.
Retail prices fell 1.0 per cent in July, to a seasonally adjusted A$16.536 billion ($17.97b), from June's revised A$16.698b.
"But it was found that there was very good demand for kiwi and aussie at lower levels," the spokesman said.
"From there, in the case of kiwi, we've seen a rally back through US65c.
"After that (retail sales) number we saw some people buying kiwi against the aussie, so there's been a return to the highs on the kiwi-aussie cross."
At 5pm, the kiwi was buying A93.28c (A93.20c).
The euro was at US$1.2174 (US$1.2190), while the greenback was fetching 109.52 yen (109.49).
On the crosses, the kiwi was buying 0.5350 euro (0.5358), 36.36 British pence (36.42), 71.34 yen (71.50), and 0.8211 Swiss francs (0.8231).
The trade weighted index was at 66.41 (66.53), and the monetary conditions index was at plus 712 (720).
On the money market, 90-day bank bill yields were at 6.57 per cent (6.55).
February 2006 bond yields were at 6.18 per cent (6.19), July 2009s were at 6.15 per cent (6.18) and April 2013s were at 6.14 per cent (6.18).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Australian retail figures help push kiwi above US65c mark today
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