The New Zealand dollar ended the day exactly where it began after snoring through the usual quiet Monday trade.
The lethargic kiwi failed to trade by 9.15am, not uncommon for the start of the week, one local dealer said. Its opening quote of US42.56c was also the end quote, although it gained some ground on Friday's close of US42.51c.
The kiwi traded in a tight range of US42.47/56c during the day.
"It was just a day of consolidation really, the aussie had a reasonable day," the dealer said.
"Kiwi had a very low volume day after last week's rises - probably hanging in there and looking pretty firm, and on that side I guess it's a pretty positive note," the dealer said.
He expected the kiwi to be fairly well bid overnight, trading between US 42.45c/75c with a continuing up side bias.
"We're still looking for it to be relatively positive (this week). Euro looks quite strong and the aussie's starting to show a bit more strength today."
One dealer said the kiwi was unlikely to trade actively until the Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Statement on Wednesday when there is a strong consensus that the bank will leave interest rates unchanged.
However, there are some in the market who believe the bank will switch to a "tightening bias", something that could jolt the kiwi's recent uptrend. It would buck the trend of most countries which are easing rates to buoy up flagging economies.
Across the Tasman the Reserve Bank of Australia said today the short term outlook for the Australian economy has improved, although the risks from abroad have risen.
The RBA also said that underlying inflation in Australia could top 3 percent in the near term, but provided the rise was temporary it would not trigger a rate rise.
The RBA has left rates steady at 5.0 percent for four months, after cutting rates three times from February through April.
At 5pm the aussie traded at US51.63c, up from Friday's close of US51.40c.
The kiwi was buying A82.33c compared with A82.66c on Friday.
On other crosses the kiwi was buying 51.99 yen (51.98 on Friday), 29.90 pence (29.87), 0.9310 marks (0.9316), 0.7200 Swiss francs (0.7174) and 0.4760 euros (0.4762). The Australian dollar was at $NZ1.2130 from Friday's close of $NZ1.2094.
The trade-weighted index was at 50.69 (50.65), and with the 90-day bills at 5.82 percent (5.75) the monetary conditions index was at minus 712 (minus 716).
Among the bonds, the March 2002s were at 5.69 percent (5.68),
the April 2004s were at 6.17 percent (6.13), the November 2006s were at 6.34 percent (6.30), and the November 2011s were at 6.51 percent (6.45).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi little changed in quiet trade
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