5.30pm
The New Zealand dollar traded firmly today and was largely unmoved by the finance minister confirming the Reserve Bank would boost its reserves.
Dr Michael Cullen confirmed today the RBNZ would increase its foreign exchange reserves by $1.9 billion and get $1 billion in extra equity under new arrangements to allow the bank to intervene in the forex market.
At 5pm this evening, the kiwi was fetching US65.37c (from US64.86c the same time yesterday), having traded between US64.95c and US65.45c during today's session.
The Australian dollar was at US74.96c (US74.56c).
BNZ currency strategist Sue Trinh, said Dr Cullen's announcement merely confirmed what the market already knew, but nevertheless served to put a lid on the kiwi shortly after the minister spoke around lunch time.
But Ms Trinh said the kiwi surged late this afternoon in line with the euro, which is currently strong on the back of general weakness in the US dollar.
She expected the kiwi to trade in a range of US65.15c and US65.60c in the offshore session overnight.
The euro was at US$1.2182 (US$1.2088), while the greenback was buying 105.57 yen (105.54).
Coming up later this week, the European Central Bank is set to meet overnight on Thursday (NZT) with the market speculating it will cut its benchmark rate in coming months and the latest payroll data from the US will be released on Friday.
Meanwhile, on the crosses, the kiwi was buying A87.21c (A86.97c), 0.5367 euro (0.5365), 69.00 yen (68.44), 35.89 British pence (35.80), and 0.8384 Swiss francs (0.8345).
The trade-weighted index was at 65.31 (64.97), while the monetary conditions index was at plus 523 (496).
Ninety-day bank bill yields were unchanged at 5.53 per cent.
The February 2006 yields were also static at 5.36 per cent, July 2009s were at 5.62 per cent (5.61), and April 2013s were unchanged at 5.78 per cent.
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi largely unmoved by RB boost
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