A strong performance by the New Zealand dollar today saw it push through to six year highs, propelled by ongoing US dollar weakness and comments accompanying today's official cash rate review.
By 5pm the kiwi was at a fresh six-year closing high of US60.98c from US60.22c last night after trading in a US60.62c to US61.03c range today, while the Australian dollar was at US70.54c (US69.95c).
The kiwi had been "pretty robust all day", ANZ Investment Bank chief foreign exchange dealer Murray Hindley told NZPA.
"Reasonably hawkish comments out of the central bank this morning coupled with continued weakness in the US dollar through the Asian session" saw the kiwi reach fresh six-year highs, he said.
As widely expected, Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard left benchmark interest rates unchanged at 5 per cent at today's official cash rate review.
Mr Hindley expected the kiwi to trade between US60.60c and US61.20c tonight.
Meanwhile, at 5pm the euro was at US$1.1822 (US$1.1673 last night), while the greenback was at 109.05 yen (109.48).
On the crosses the kiwi was buying A86.38c (A86.10c), 66.48 yen (65.92), 0.5159 euro (0.5160), 35.97 pence (35.94), and 0.7998 Swiss francs (0.8009).
The Australian dollar was at $1.1822 ($1.1618).
The monetary conditions index was at plus 278 (249), the trade-weighted index was at 62.61 (62.20), and 90-day bank bill yields were unchanged at 5.24 per cent.
The February 2005 government bond yields were at 5.46 per cent (5.45), the November 2006s were at 5.79 per cent (5.78), and the November 2011s were at 6.01 per cent (6.05).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi powers to fresh six year highs
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