The New Zealand dollar had a stable, but uninspired day yesteday, as its Australian counterpart failed to offer any firm leads.
At 5pm, the kiwi was at US42.67c, just below Thursday's US42.74c closing level. The Australian dollar also retreated, trading at US52.22c (US52.42c late yesterday).
"It was a fairly quiet day here really," one local currency dealer said.
"Kiwi sort of failed on its recent highs overnight, came back down and tested its lows, held there again, still in the US42.50c to US43c range.
"On the day it has been fairly quiet, trading between US42.54c to US42.68c."
Dealers said the speculative buying that had pushed the kiwi up in recent days had dried up.
The kiwi was expected to trade between US42.50c and US42.90c overnight, while keeping an eye on the aussie for direction.
"We'll see how the aussie goes overnight. It is meant to have bids around US52c, so if that holds, it may push higher again. (The aussie) has run out of steam a bit on the topside at the moment, but if it can consolidate and hold in, it may have a bit of a push higher later on," the dealer said.
On the crosses at 5pm the kiwi was buying A81.71c (A81.53c at Thursday's close), 56.39 yen (56.69), 29.59 pence (29.70), 0.7086 Swiss francs (0.7088) and 0.4781 euro (0.4796). The Australian dollar was buying $NZ1.2238 ($NZ1.2264).
The Trade Weighted Index, which measures the kiwi against a basket of currencies from New Zealand's key trading partners, was at 51.48 (51.58 at Thursday's close), 90 day bank bills were steady at 4.89 per cent and the monetary conditions index was at minus 730 (minus 719).
On the debt market the March 2002 bonds were steady at 4.89 per cent, the April 2004s were at 5.65 per cent (5.68), the November 2006s were at 6.21 per cent (6.22), and the November 2011s were at 6.55 per cent (6.58).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi steady but uninspired
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