5.30pm
The New Zealand dollar had an up-and-down but quiet local session today, tagging along as its aussie counterpart came under pressure, a local dealer said.
At 5pm the kiwi was buying US62.06c from US62.83c at 5pm last night, having traded between US61.82c and US62.44c.
The Australian dollar was at US69.19c (US70.72c).
"It's been a reasonably quiet day," Westpac chief currency dealer Basil Payn told NZPA.
"We've probably spent more time following the aussie around rather than doing too much ourselves.
"We had a move higher this morning, and then we've moved lower this afternoon as the aussie dollar came under pressure."
Mr Payn said a weaker than expected Australian GDP figure yesterday meant the kiwi would likely gain further against the aussie leading into next week's Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) rate call.
The RBNZ is widely expected to lift rates which would further extend the interest rate differential between the two currencies and favour the kiwi even more. Yesterday, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) held its cash rate unchanged at 5.25 per cent, compared with New Zealand's 5.50 per cent.
This evening the kiwi was buying A89.69c (A88.94c), its highest level against the aussie since February.
Elsewhere, the US dollar was trading at 110.65 yen (110.70), while the euro was buying US$1.2198 (US$1.2246).
On the other crosses, the kiwi was buying 0.5092 euros (0.5125), 33.88 British pence (34.08), 68.66 yen (69.60), 0.7769 Swiss francs (0.7824).
The trade-weighted index was at 63.36 (63.84), while the monetary conditions index was at plus 418 (456).
On the money market, 90-day bank bill yields were unchanged at 5.99 per cent, February 2006 bonds were at 5.86 per cent (5.89), July 2009s were at 6.09 per cent (6.11) and April 2013s were at 6.20 per cent (6.23).
- NZPA
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