KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar rose slightly today against the US dollar but only within a narrow range.
By 5pm today the kiwi was at US76.27c from US76.05c at 4.45pm on Friday.
ANZ Institutional Bank dealer Murray Hindley said the National Bank Business Outlook survey released at 3pm helped propel the currency to the top end of its trading range.
Business confidence nudged higher in the survey with a net 39 per cent of those surveyed expecting worse times over the year ahead, which was an improvement from the net 50 per cent in last month's survey.
The bank said the underlying economy remained weak but tax cuts provide an impetus to the economy.
The US dollar has been sliding, weighed down by last week's scaling back of Fed tightening expectations and another lacklustre performance by the US stock market on Friday.
ANZ bank said the US dollar remained under pressure, which was ensuring the kiwi continued to hold up despite New Zealand's first quarter GDP contraction.
"However, USD weakness is unlikely to be the kiwi's saviour for too long, especially once the RBNZ starts to ease interest rates in the coming months," ANZ said.
The BNZ said the New Zealand dollar will be tossed around by counterveiling forces this week but sellers are likely to emerge around US76.50c.
Against the euro, the NZ dollar was at 0.4832 at 5pm today from 0.4836 at 4.45pm on Friday.
Against the yen the kiwi dollar was at 80.86 from 81.45, and against the Australian dollar it was at A79.26c from A79.35c. The trade weighted index was 67.74 at 5pm from 67.77.
CROSS RATES
At 5pm today:
NZ dlr/US dlr US76.27c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A79.26c
NZ dlr/euro 0.4832
NZ dlr/yen 80.86
NZ dlr/stg 38.26p
Australian dollar US96.21c
Euro/US dollar 1.5786
US dollar/yen 106.01
- NZPA