NZPA - The New Zealand dollar slipped a tad in another lacklustre day of local trading yesterday.
At 5pm the kiwi was at US41.31c from US41.62c at Wednesday's close, while the closely aligned aussie unit ended local trade at US52.13c (US52.26c).
"We had a positive start to the week, where both aussie and kiwi saw strength and we have probably just seen a bit of a turnaround overnight and a little bit of a retracement towards the bottom of the range," one local currency dealer said.
The fall in the Australasian currencies came despite a raft of bad news for the US dollar.
The greenback struggled in Asian markets, after the Federal Reserve's Beige Book - released overnight - highlighted that US economic conditions were still sluggish in late October and early November. The US unit was also hit by news energy trader Enron Corp was teetering on the brink of collapse.
The greenback lost ground against the euro and yen, but held its ground against the peripheral currencies, with many operators viewing the US unit's fall as a correction to steep rises over the past several weeks, with few reasons to actively buy other currencies.
The euro was buying US88.72c at the end of the day's local session from US88.34c late Wednesday, while the US dollar slipped to 123.12 yen (123.68 yen).
Local dealers expected the kiwi to trade between US41.20c and US41.40c overnight.
"Whereas last night we had upside targets, tonight maybe we might have a look at the downside," one dealer said.
"(But) I don't think there is going to be too much happening really."
On the crosses at 5pm the kiwi was buying A79.24c (A79.66c at yesterday's close), 50.86 yen (51.46), 0.9106 marks (0.9211), 0.6799 Swiss francs (0.6895) and 0.4656 euros (0.4710). The Australian dollar was at $NZ1.2621 ($NZ1.2577).
The trade-weighted index was at 49.27 (49.73), the 90-day bank bills were at 4.86 per cent (4.85) and the monetary conditions index was at minus 952 (minus 906).
On the debt market, the March 2002 bonds were at 4.75 per cent (4.74), the April 2004s were at 5.42 per cent (5.42), the November 2006s were steady at 6.00 per cent, as were the November 2011s at 6.51 per cent.
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi and Aussie slip, despite Greenback weakness
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