5.30pm
Renewed interest in the United States dollar has contributed to its New Zealand counterpart shedding more than 1-1/2 US cents in the past 24 hours.
At 5pm, the kiwi was fetching US64.72c, down US1.61c from last night's closing level of US66.33c.
Today's session saw the kiwi range between US65.31c and US64.61c.
The Australian dollar was at US74.73c (US76.70c).
Westpac New Zealand's chief dealer Basil Payn said strong retail sales data out of the US last night had prompted a fresh round of greenback buying.
US retail sales climbed 1.8 per cent in March, beating economists' forecasts for a rise of 0.6 per cent. That data indicated a US recovery was on a firmer footing.
"We (the kiwi) came in (to the domestic session) around our lows (of US65.42c) and we've seen some stop-loss selling against the euro and against the US dollar," Mr Payn told NZPA today.
Stops are the currency positions taken by traders to prevent further losses.
"We have held that US64.60c support, which is quite critical. If we break that we may trade as low as US64.20," he said.
Another broker said he expected the kiwi to bounce back to the US64.90c area before it came under pressure.
If the euro fell through the US$1.1910 mark it would "scoot down to" US$1.1850 and "kiwi will be touching the high US63c mark."
Meanwhile, the greenback was buying 107.00 yen (105.14), and the euro was at US$1.1924 (US$1.2072).
On the domestic front, Statistics New Zealand today said seasonally adjusted retail sales in February were down 1.6 per cent, worse than economists' predictions of a 1.0 per cent fall.
On the crosses, the kiwi was buying A86.62c (A86.48c), 0.5426 euro (0.5495), 69.22 yen (69.74), 35.68 British pence (36.04), and 0.8420 Swiss francs (0.8512).
The trade-weighted index was at 65.16 (66.04), while the monetary conditions index was at plus 517 (583).
Ninety-day bank bill yields were unchanged at 5.56 per cent.
The February 2006 yields were at 5.56 per cent (5.50), July 2009s were at 5.92 per cent (5.82), and April 2013s were at 6.11 per cent (6.03).
- NZPA
<I>Currency:</I> Renewed interest in greenback sees kiwi plunge
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