The New Zealand dollar remained healthy today, hitting seven-week highs and unhitching from its driver the Australian dollar.
At 5pm the kiwi strengthened to US41.95c from yesterday's close of US41.89c while the aussie dropped to US51.76c from US51.88c at the close yesterday.
"The kiwi still looks pretty good," one local currency dealer said.
"We've seen it pull back a little bit this afternoon - I don't know if we'll see further highs overnight, but it's feeling very strong at the moment."
The kiwi traded in a range today between US41.92 and US42.18c, and it was likely to stride up to US42.20c overnight.
"Kiwi was really doing it on its own today from what we saw, people taking getting in and getting fresh longs on board the kiwi. Sentiment's changed - people are looking at the kiwi as reasonable value at the moment," he said.
It looked fairly healthy heading into the new week, he said.
However the kiwi was in the dog box two weeks ago and could return there before long.
On the data front, US payroll figures due out later tonight are likely to have the biggest impact on offshore markets. The US Labour Department's July non-farm payrolls report is expected to show a loss of 50,000 jobs and a rise in the unemployment rate to 4.6 percent from 4.5 percent in June.
On the crosses at 5pm the kiwi was at A81.01c (A80.75c at yesterday's close), 51.88 yen (52.15), 29.31 pence (29.19), 0.9298 marks (0.9284), 0.7182 Swiss francs (0.7166) and 0.4755 euros (0.4746). The Australian dollar was at $NZ1.2344 from yesterday's close of $NZ1.2381.
The trade-weighted index was at 50.19 (50.18) while the 90-day bills were steady at 5.80 percent. The monetary conditions index was at minus 764 (minus 765).
Among the bonds, the March 2002s were at 5.67 percent (5.66), the April 2004s at 6.28 percent (6.25), the November 2006s were at 6.49 percent (6.45), and the November 2011s were at 6.66 percent (6.62).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi hits stride, reaches seven-week highs
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.