The New Zealand dollar continued to eye its Australian neighbour for direction yesterday, ending almost flat on yesterday's close.
At 5pm, the kiwi was at US41.31c from US41.28c late Monday, while the aussie improved to US52.06c from US51.73c.
"(Kiwi) has been bought up because the aussie dollar has gone up today. The market was short of New Zealand dollars and the aussie strength has dragged it up," Bank of New Zealand dealer Margaret Skilton said.
"It is hard to make a story about the kiwi by itself."
Data showing the outlook for local business' stabilised in November following a big dive in October was ignored, as investors await offshore figures such as the US "beige book" on economic conditions on Wednesday.
The National Bank's monthly business confidence figure showed a net 18 per cent of businesses surveyed expected trading conditions to deteriorate over the coming year, a tad improved from October's figure of 19 per cent.
Business confidence plunged 32 percentage points last month in the wake of the events of September 11.
"I think people are taking that sort of thing with a grain of salt. Everyone is just waiting to see what actually comes of it. People tend to think that the world is going to get worse but it is not particularly bad in their business," Ms Skilton said.
Dealers expected the kiwi to remain rangebound between US41.20c and US41.60c overnight.
On the kiwi-aussie cross, the New Zealand dollar was trading at A79.35c (A79.79c), while the aussie was buying $NZ1.2600 ($NZ1.2533).
On the other crosses, the kiwi was trading at 0.4683 euros (0.4691), 51.34 yen (51.22), 29.22 pence (29.18), 0.9160 marks (0.9177), and 0.6864 Swiss francs (0.6865).
The trade-weighted index was at 49.47 (49.49), the 90-day bank bills were steady at 4.89 per cent and the monetary conditions index was at minus 929 (minus 926).
On the debt market, the March 2002 bonds were at 4.77 per cent (4.78), the April 2004s were at 5.52 per cent (5.48), the November 2006s were at 6.10 per cent (6.06), and the November 2011s at 6.63 per cent (6.59).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi hitches a lift higher with Aussie
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