6.25pm
The New Zealand dollar continued to ease during today's local session as it and its Australian counterpart were subject to a period of correction following their vigorous post-Christmas gains.
At 5pm in Wellington the kiwi was at US65.85c from US67.29c at 5pm on Friday, having opened near its highs for the day at about US66.45c, it traded as low as US65.70c. The aussie was at US75.68c from US77.11c on Friday evening.
ANZ Investment Bank senior dealer Mark Elliott told NZPA the kiwi "got slammed down today".
"It was pretty much stop-loss selling in the aussie that drove it lower. It's just momentum type selling -- liquidation of long aussie positions and (the) kiwi just followed suit."
Mr Elliott said the kiwi may ease further in the short term.
"I don't see any decent support until around the US65.00c to US65.20c area. I think any top side move here is going to be limited to around US66.30c."
However, the speed and extent of the kiwi's fall in the last day or so, "looks like it may be a little bit overdone", and it may soon retrace at least some of its losses.
Tonight, Mr Elliott expected to see the kiwi trade in a US65.50c to US66.30c range.
Elsewhere the euro was at US$1.2373, (US$1.2595 at 5pm on Friday), and the greenback was buying 106.56 yen (106.14).
On the crosses the New Zealand dollar was buying A87.02c (A87.26c), 0.5322 euro (0.5343), 70.15 yen (71.41), 36.61 British pence (36.88), and 0.8349 Swiss francs (0.8372).
On a trade weighted basis, the kiwi was at 65.59 (66.41).
The monetary conditions index was at plus 525 (586), and 90-day bank bills were at 5.33 per cent (5.32).
On the debt market, February 2006 bond yields were unchanged at 5.41 per cent, July 2009 bonds were at 5.69 per cent (5.68), and April 2013 bonds were at 5.85 per cent (5.83).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi continues to ease from post-xmas highs
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