After a push above the US44c mark yesterday morning, the New Zealand dollar succumbed to offshore profit-taking.
At 5pm yesterday the kiwi was at US43.82c from US43.88c at Thursday's close. Its Australian counterpart was at US53.07c (US53.03c).
Dealers said the kiwi rallied on a slightly weakening greenback overnight, but ran out of steam after hitting US44.20c, and today fell prey to a bit of selling.
"Both aussie and kiwi have seen a reasonable amount of profit-taking on long positions on Thursday, so I suspect that may continue, obviously with the euro under a little bit of pressure as well," said Westpac dealer Basil Payn.
"We're looking maybe at a bit more weakness early next week."
The kiwi traded right on expectations yesterday between US43.80c and US44.14c, and was expected to travel between US43.60c and US44.10c overnight.
Mr Payn said the currency market was certainly hoping for and anticipating another interest rate rise if not in April, then May. The BNZ is predicting a 25 basis point rise in April with at least a 50 basis point rise by May.
On the crosses at 5pm the kiwi traded at A82.58c (A82.61c at Thursday's close), 0.4987 euro (0.4978), 57.97 yen (58.03), 30.55 pence (30.55) and 0.7300 Swiss francs (0.7277).
The aussie was at $NZ1.2108 ($NZ1.2095).
The monetary conditions index eased today to minus 521 (minus 516), the trade weighted index was at 52.91 (52.95), and 90-day bank bills were at 5.59 per cent (5.60).
On the debt market, the April 2004 bonds were at 6.23 per cent (6.24), the November 2006s at 6.68 per cent (6.70) and the November 2011s at 6.84 per cent (6.84).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Profit-takers put Kiwi under pressure
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