9.20am
Forex traders took notice of New Zealand's recent crop of positive economic data last night, pushing the local unit up to a nine-week high against the greenback and a 14-month high against the aussie.
At 8.30am in Wellington the kiwi was at US64.88c, its highest since late April, from US63.66c at 5pm yesterday having traded in a US63.61c to US64.37c range.
ANZ Investment Bank chief foreign exchange dealer Murray Hindley said the kiwi made "a pretty strong move overnight".
Despite a relatively quiet session for the greenback the kiwi had done well on all the crosses particularly against the aussie, and was buying A91.61c by 8.30am its highest since April last year. The aussie was buying US69.95c (US69.69c at 5pm yesterday).
"I guess the latest batch of data out of New Zealand has been reasonably strong," Mr Hindley said.
Yesterday's outsized $656 million May trade surplus figure came on the coat-tails of last week's strong GDP, and current account numbers, indicating the local economy, particularly the export sector is in stout health.
With the local currency challenging key resistance at US64.20c, and depending on what future approach was flagged by the US Federal Reserve Bank at its interest rate call on Wednesday morning New Zealand time, Mr Hindley said the kiwi was likely to push higher in coming days.
Elsewhere, at 8.30am in Wellington, the greenback was buying 107.94 yen (107.67), while the euro was fetching US$1.2185 (US$1.2154).
On the crosses, the kiwi was buying 35.02 British pence (34.93), 0.5259 euro (0.5237), 69.16 yen (68.52), and 0.8003 Swiss francs (0.7962).
The trade-weighted index was at 65.03 (64.57), while the monetary conditions index was at plus 565 (538).
On the money market, 90-day bank bill yields were at 6.14 per cent (6.15), February 2006 bonds were at 6.07 per cent (6.03), July 2009s were at 6.23 per cent (6.17) and April 2013s were at 6.32 per cent (6.26).
Kiwi-aussie exchange rate
- NZPA
Kiwi goes to 14-month high against aussie
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