The New Zealand dollar finished down as Singaporean fund-based selling exceeded exporter buying, compounding initial softness overnight as the greenback gained on employment data.
The kiwi ended at 41.85USc (42.39c on Friday), and slid against the aussie to close at 82.32Ac from 82.80c last week. It traded in a 41.82-03c range on relatively light volumes.
A partial market holiday in Australia kept punters away from that unit. The local unit correlates strongly with aussie moves although it has generally firmed on the cross lately as New Zealand economic data remains positive while Australia slumps.
The aussie ended locally at 50.86USc (51.20c), holding above Thursday's record low of 50.62USc.
Bank of New Zealand foreign exchange manager Mike Symonds said the kiwi would struggle to rally this week as the Australian dollar continued to struggle.
His bank said in a weekly commentary kiwi sentiment was bearish but bottoming.
"The kiwi's downtrend is mature and looking for exhaustion around 41.50USc this week," the bank said.
The unit would likely rally back to 43.30c en route to 45.45c.
Citibank's Dean Sheridan said good terms of trade and retail sales numbers yesterday had no impact.
The market this week will focus on tomorrow's Monetary Policy Statement. Most expect the Reserve Bank to keep its official cash rate at 6.50 per cent, although some are picking a quarter percentage point easing.
Views are split as to what extent the central bank feels it can ignore evident inflationary pressures in the light of slowing Australian and world growth.
On other crosses, the kiwi was 50.40 yen (50.69), 28.51 pence (28.80), and 0.4485 euros (0.4541).
The trade-weighted index was at 49.25 (49.74) and 90-day bills were at 6.32 percent (6.30).
A growing expectation of an early RBNZ rate cut has seen 90-day bill rates drop as low as 6.30 per cent from 6.50 per cent two weeks ago.
The monetary conditions index eased to minus 806.
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi under 42USc as Aust dollar slides
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