The kiwi rallied today against a weaker greenback following an interest rate hike in the United States.
At 5pm in Wellington the kiwi was buying US63.62c from US62.79c at 5pm yesterday.
Westpac's foreign exchange sales manager Mike Burns said there was a fairly muted market response to the news the US Federal Reserve had boosted its key short-term interest rate by 25 basis points to 1.25 per cent.
"The market had already pre-empted it to a certain degree. The US dollar had sold off and basically the kiwi, aussie and euro had all rallied through the night," Mr Burns said.
Following this morning's announcement by the Fed the kiwi traded in a range of US63.05c and US63.70c. But Mr Burns said for much of the day the kiwi traded in a fairly tight range of US63.50c and US63.70c.
He said there was likely to be a small upward bias for the kiwi overnight as European markets absorb the hike and the accompanying statement, in which the Fed reaffirmed its commitment to a measured pace in terms of monetary policy.
But he said the much anticipated rate hike was almost old news already. "We move from one release to the next. The market is now focusing on the US non-farm payrolls on Friday."
Meanwhile at 5pm today greenback was fetching 108.02 yen (108.64), while the euro was at US$1.2166 (US$1.2086) and the Australian dollar was at US69.77c (US68.86c).
On the crosses, the kiwi was buying A91.19c (A91.20c), 35.03 British pence (34.73), 0.5229 euro (0.5195), 68.68 yen (68.20), and 0.7969 Swiss francs (0.7940).
The trade-weighted index was at 64.66 (64.14), while the monetary conditions index was at plus 544 (498).
On the money market, 90-day bank bill yields were at 6.23 per cent (6.17).
On the bond market, the February 2006s were at 6.05 per cent (6.06), July 2009s were at 6.16 per cent (6.21) and April 2013s were at 6.29 per cent (6.32).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi rallies against soft Greenback
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