The heat was turned up under the New Zealand dollar in the last 24 hours with a better than expected local gross domestic product (GDP) number giving impetus to a kiwi already up on poor US economic data.
At 5pm in Wellington the kiwi was at US63.77c from US63.58c at 8.30am and US62.70c at 5pm last night having traded as low as US63.31c and high as US64.00c.
ANZ Investment Bank chief foreign exchange dealer Murray Hindley said it had been a very busy session and the kiwi had been driven up firstly by US dollar weakness on the back of a weak US durable goods number out overnight, and then by today's "monster GDP figure".
Statistics New Zealand today said March quarter GDP growth was 2.3 per cent, trouncing most economists' expectations of 1.6 per cent.
As a result, "we've seen the kiwi as high as US64c and it's likely to push higher I would suggest," Mr Hindley said, adding it appeared poised for "another look back at US65c".
The New Zealand dollar was tonight finding buyers at US63.60c and could break resistance at US64.20c during the overnight overseas session.
The kiwi also rose against the aussie and by 5pm was buying A91.11c (A90.90c), while the aussie was at US70.02c (US68.99c).
The greenback was buying 107.38 yen (108.30), while the euro was fetching US$1.2152 (US$1.2055).
On the other crosses, the kiwi was buying 34.98 British pence (34.59), 0.5250 euro (0.5202), 68.48 yen (67.90), and 0.7945 Swiss francs (0.7877).
The trade-weighted index was at 64.70 (64.03), while the monetary conditions index was at plus 540 (487).
On the money market, 90-day bank bill yields were at 6.16 per cent (6.15), February 2006 bonds were at 6.03 per cent (6.02), July 2009s were at 6.19 per cent (6.18), and April 2013s were unchanged at 6.29 per cent.
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi kicks higher on 'monster' GDP number
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