The New Zealand dollar received a leg up today from its Australian counterpart which rallied after positive comments from Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor Ian Macfarlane.
At 5pm in Wellington the kiwi was at US64.70c (from US64.48c at market's close on Friday), having traded in a range of US64.45c to US64.72c. Against the aussie, the kiwi was fetching A87.58c (A87.77c), while against the greenback the aussie was US73.73c (US73.47c).
The kiwi closed on the h ighs of its range ANZ Investment Bank senior dealer and technical analyst Mark Elliott said.
"It traded higher throughout most of the day after comments by Reserve Bank of Australia governor Ian Macfarlane," Mr Elliott said.
Mr Macfarlane told a parliamentary committee in Brisbane the RBA expected GDP growth of four percent in 2004 with the possibility that it could be even higher if the world economy continued to surprise on the strong side.
"The aussie rallied about 25 basis points and we've seen a commensurate rise in the kiwi on the back of that" Mr Elliott said, adding that there were no heavy flows of note during the day's trade.
In the short term, Mr Elliott said it was hard to know where the kiwi would go from here. "We may well be top of the range here", he said.
He picked a range of US64.40c to US64.80c for tonight's offshore session.
Meanwhile on the crosses at 5pm in Wellington, the kiwi was at 0.5322 euro (0.5336), 69.67 yen (69.82), 37.43 pence (37.44), and 0.8264 Swiss francs (0.8313).
The Australian dollar was buying $NZ1.1418 ($NZ1.1394), while the greenback was fetching 107.65 yen (108.30) and the euro was buying $US1.2158 ($US1.2085).
The trade weighted index was at 65.27 (65.28).
The monetary conditions index was at plus 493 (498), and 90-day bank bills were at 5.28 percent (5.27).
On the debt market, April 2004 bonds were at 5.15 percent (5.17), February 2006s were at 5.61 percent (5.69), and November 2011s were at 6.00 percent (6.13).
- NZPA
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