5.45pm
The New Zealand dollar fell back to US66.02c today after a hefty overnight rise of more than 1c as the US dollar experienced a fresh bout of weakness.
It had risen as high as US66.47c compared to US65.37c yesterday as the greenback weakened on a broad front, hit by a combination of heightened security concerns and equity market weakness amid a dearth of positive economic news.
"Other than US dollar weakness, it's hard to pin it (the kiwi's strength) on anything," Westpac chief dealer in New Zealand Basil Payn said.
The Australian dollar closed at US75.32c from US74.47c at 5pm yesterday, having hit a high of US75.59c in overnight trading.
"Concern about the Middle East situation is rising," Koji Fukaya, chief forex analyst at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, said.
"Any terrorist attacks in the US would obviously hurt the dollar, but as long as this instability is restricted to the Middle East the impact should be limited."
Analysts said that regardless of the security outlook, economic fundamentals continued to point to a weaker US dollar.
The US dollar was buying 106.72 yen at 5pm in Wellington (107.46 yesterday) and the euro was at US$1.2352 (US$1.2392).
On the crosses, the kiwi was buying A87.61c (A87.78c), 0.5346 euro (0.5338), 70.45 yen (70.24), 35.72 British pence (35.69), and 0.8300 Swiss francs (0.8318).
The trade-weighted index was at 65.74 (65.47), while the monetary conditions index rose to 556 from 535.
Ninety-day bank bill yields were unchanged at 5.52 per cent.
The February 2006 yields were at 5.28 per cent (5.32), July 2009s were at 5.52 per cent (5.56), and April 2013s were at 5.67 per cent (5.71).
- NZPA
<I>Currency:</I> NZ dollar falls to US66c following overnight rise
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