The New Zealand dollar found decent support today and is likely to head higher overnight to fresh five-year highs.
By 5pm the kiwi rose to US58.84c from US58.25c yesterday, while the aussie was at US67.35c (US66.76c).
One local dealer said the kiwi had been well supported all day, rising above US58.80c.
"It just basically got on with the job. There was a bit of offshore buying in the aussie and the kiwi that started last night, and continued on today.
"We think it could go to US59.20c tonight. Considering we didn't go below US58.20c the other day, we've got through US58.60c and US58.80c so it looks pretty good - US58.60c is the support at the moment," the dealer said.
In Tokyo today the yen gained against the US dollar on a stronger-than-expected "tankan" corporate survey and the Nikkei share average's jump to a seven-month high.
However, traders remained pessimistic about the outlook for the yen, which fell to a two-month low of 120.24 against the greenback in post-Asian trade on Monday, saying that underlying sentiment still favoured the US currency.
In Wellington at 5pm the euro rose to $US1.1527 from $US1.1441 yesterday, while the greenback eased slightly to 119.65 yen (119.85).
On the crosses at 5pm the kiwi was buying A87.52c (A87.24c at 5pm yesterday), 70.53 yen (69.80), 35.57 pence (35.23), 0.7975 Swiss francs (0.7867), and 0.5113 euro (0.5093).
The monetary conditions index was at plus 277 (239), the trade-weighted index was at 62.52 (62.01) and 90-day bank bill yields were at 5.23 per cent (5.27).
The February 2005 yields were at 4.87 per cent (4.88), the November 2006s were at 4.94 per cent (4.94), and the November 2011s were at 5.26 per cent (5.29).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi heading for fresh five-year high
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