5.45pm
The New Zealand dollar locked in gains it made during Friday's overseas session today and looked set to head higher tonight.
At 5pm in Wellington the kiwi was buying US66.52c from US65.40c at the same time on Friday, having traded in a US66.38c to US66.69c range.
The kiwi rose more than a cent against a tumbling greenback in Friday's offshore session, breaking through the US66c mark. The greenback suffered from the release on Friday night (NZT) of record US trade deficit data for June.
Today Westpac chief currency dealer Basil Payn said local trade had seen the kiwi consolidate from its move higher.
He said there had been some importer selling today to take advantage of the Trade Weighted Index's (TWI) move to about 67.20. The TWI was trading at 67.24 at 5pm from 66.62 at the same time on Friday.
Mr Payn said the kiwi was finding "very good support" at about US66.20c, "and it look like we'll have a test around that US67.10c level maybe tonight".
Meanwhile at 5pm in Wellington the aussie was at US71.78c (US70.74c at 5pm on Friday), the euro was at US$1.2371 (US$1.2230) and the greenback was fetching 110.51 yen (111.95 yen).
On the crosses, the kiwi was buying A92.69c (A92.45c), 0.5377 euro (0.5347), 36.13 British pence (35.93), 73.59 yen (73.21) and 0.8249 Swiss francs (0.8224).
The monetary conditions index was at plus 766 (716).
On the money and debt markets, 90-day bank bill yields were at 6.49 per cent (6.45), February 2006 bonds were at 6.16 per cent (6.13), July 2009s were at 6.17 per cent (6.15), and April 2013s were unchanged at 6.19 per cent (6.16).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi locks in Friday's gains against the US$
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