The New Zealand dollar stayed steady yesterday, staving off any further losses against a strengthening greenback.
"It's been a day of limited activity, to be honest, the range being US42.23c to US41.34c," said Mike Symonds, chief currency dealer for BNZ.
The kiwi has lost nearly half a US cent in recent days, and market players said data due out later this week was likely to reinforce a belief that the US economy would outpace recoveries in other regions.
At 5pm the kiwi was US42.27c down from US42.37c yesterday and from US42.72c on Friday evening.
Mr Symonds said the risk was still to the downside with the kiwi, and rallies were expected to be limited. Trading was still "on the defensive, in line with the weaker aussie, but the critical support of US41.80c remains intact and until we see a serious test of that area, the range trading we've seen over the last few weeks, from pre-Christmas into January, continues."
This week's barrage of economic data started was to start overnight with a meeting of the US Federal Reserve on interest rates. Most analysts did not expect a change.
Overnight the rangebound kiwi was expected to trade around US42.10-40c.
The Australian dollar was down at US51.53c from its US51.72c close. The aussie was buying $NZ1.2191 ($NZ1.2107).
On the main crosses the kiwi strengthened against the aussie at A82.03c (A81.92c at Monday's close), and against the euro at 0.4899 (0.4892c). It lost ground on some other currencies - 29.96 pence (30.03), and 0.7207 Swiss francs (0.7212).
The Trade Weighted Index weighed in at 51.64 (51.73), 90-day bank bills were steady at 4.88 per cent and the monetary conditions index was at minus 712 (minus 704).
In the debt market, the March 2002 bonds were at 4.74 per cent (4.73), the April 2004s were at 5.88 per cent (5.83), the November 2006s were at 6.38 per cent (6.33), and the November 2011s were at 6.66 per cent (6.60).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Limited trading keeps Kiwi from falling
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.