The New Zealand dollar was flat and looking for offshore direction last night, following a weekend of strong oveseas interest.
Over the weekend the kiwi hovered close to 14-month highs of US44.75c as investors continued to favour the euro over the US dollar.
By 5pm yesterday the kiwi was trading at US44.73c from US44.84c at Friday's close while its Australian stablemate was at US54.10c (US54.03c).
While brokers complained today's trading had been "dull, boring and narrow," hopes were high that positive offshore sentiment towards high-yielding, thriving markets like New Zealand's would continue.
Bank of New Zealand currency strategist Stu Ritson said the local unit was likely to continue to attract decent support as the US dollar remained on the defensive.
"Continued hopes for global economic recovery is encouraging some scaling back of excessively overweight positions in US assets in favour of high yielding growth currency alternatives such as the NZD," he said.
The Australian dollar had been similarly narrow yesterday and one broker said it would "take London and New York to set direction tonight".
After trading between US44.58/78c yesterday, the kiwi was expected to range between US44.60/95c overnight with a break of US45c likely this week.
On the crosses at 5pm the kiwi was at A82.69c (A82.99c at Friday's close), 0.5027 euro (0.5027), 58.17 yen (58.24), 30.92 pence (30.93) and 0.7371 Swiss francs (0.7374).
The aussie was buying $NZ1.2098 ($NZ1.2048).
The monetary conditions index tightened slightly to minus 452 (minus 446), the trade weighted index was at 53.47 (53.58), and 90-day bank bills were steady at 5.76 per cent.
On the debt market, the April 2004 bond yields were at 6.24 per cent (6.21), the November 2006s were at 6.69 per cent (6.67), and the November 2011s were at 6.88 per cent (6.88).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi flat ahead of offshore trading
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.