The New Zealand dollar was treading water again yesterday ahead of interest rate decisions by the central banks of New Zealand and Australia today and a US holiday on Thursday.
By 5pm the kiwi was at US48.61c, little changed from Monday's US48.58c close, while its Australian counterpart ended local trade at US56.00c (US56.12c).
"It's been a pretty quiet day," one local dealer said.
"We've seen a reasonable range of US48.58c to US48.87c but the majority of the day has been spent in the US48.60c-US48.70c range really."
The euro was the biggest mover during the local session, losing over a cent on Monday's close to US98.32c from US99.41c.
Dealers said the euro's fall was a combination of consolidation and investors stop lossing out of existing positions.
"It sort of fed on itself, the move lower. We still think that the euro is definitely in an uptrend with the weaker US dollar, but it has come a long way and some people have been taking a profit," the local dealer said.
"There's a bit of disappointment that the euro has failed to go through $US1.00 on a number of occasions now so it's just having a bit of a consolidation."
The kiwi was expected to range between US48.50c and US48.80c overnight, ahead of today's rates decision by the Reserve Bank.
The bank is widely tipped to hike the Official Cash Rate by 25 basis points to 5.75 per cent.
On the crosses at 5pm the kiwi was buying A86.30c (A86.57c at Monday's close), 58.31 yen (58.02), 31.80 pence (31.70), 0.7267 Swiss francs (0.7188) and 0.4945 euro (0.4888).
Against the kiwi, the aussie was buying $NZ1.1523 ($NZ1.1549).
On the money market 90-day bills were at 6.02 per cent (6.04), the trade-weighted index was at 55.44 (55.20) and the monetary conditions index tightened to minus 245 (minus 266).
On the debt market the April 2004 bonds were at 6.03 per cent (6.06), the November 2006 bonds were at 6.41 per cent (6.44), and the November 2011 bonds were at 6.62 per cent (6.65).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi treads water ahead of rates announcement
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