The New Zealand dollar ended the week with a whimper, stuck within a tight 20-point range.
At 5pm the kiwi was fairly steady at US41.34c, from US41.31c at Thursday's close, while the aussie sank to US51.97c from US52.13c on Thursday.
One local dealer said the kiwi's range during the day was an uneventful US41.20/36c, where it was likely to remain during the offshore session.
"There's been steady flow across the course of the day, but it's pretty much confined to recent ranges," he said.
Kiwi's support was firm below US41.20c, and selling orders continued to accumulate above US41.50/60c.
The aussie also had a narrow range of US51.80/52.03c during the day.
Dealers around the world were watching for currency flows as a result of company reweightings in the Morgan Stanley Capital International Index (MSCI). Analysts believed there would be few significant changes in New Zealand.
Meanwhile, the greenback held steady as confusion over how the Enron Corp debacle would affect markets made for thin trade.
Rumours have been rife in markets that Japanese money market funds face large losses on Enron's debts, which have sparked a massive rush of redemptions at the funds.
But analysts and dealers said the near collapse of the US energy giant after a rescue deal fell apart would have a much bigger impact on US financial institutions.
The dollar held firm, however, and dealers said this was due to expectations that many US firms will have to repatriate funds from overseas to cover their losses on Enron debts.
At 5pm the US dollar traded at 123.90 yen (123.12 Thursday), and 88.71 euros (88.72).
On the crosses, the kiwi was buying A79.54c (A79.24c at Thursday's close), 51.22 yen (50.86), 29.00 pence (28.97), 0.9116 marks (0.9106), 0.6844 Swiss francs (0.6799) and 46.62 euros (46.56).
The Australian dollar was buying $NZ1.2569 ($NZ1.2621).
The trade-weighted index was at 49.44 (49.27), the 90-day bank bills were at 4.85 per cent (4.86) and the monetary conditions index tightened to minus 938 (minus 952).
On the debt market, the March 2002 bonds were at 4.72 per cent (4.75), the April 2004s were at 5.38 per cent (5.42), the November 2006s were at 5.95 per cent (6.00), and the November 2011s were at 6.44 per cent (6.51).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi ends week with whimper
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