KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar softened along with its Australian cousin on a change of sentiment for the Japanese yen.
After hitting a new post-float high against the greenback, touching US76.94c, the kiwi eased down to a close of US76.36c, compared with US76.74c at 5pm yesterday.
The Australian dollar fell even harder to US84.17c, from US84.78c yesterday.
Both currencies lost ground as warnings about the carry trade favoured the yen, putting pressure on leveraged positions.
"It seems to be the pattern when the yen, the funding currency of the carry trade, starts to strengthen, there's a bit of unwinding of the carry trade," ANZ currency strategist Mike Symonds said.
The kiwi dropped virtually one yen to 93.76 yen after topping 95 yen yesterday.
It also lost ground against other major trading partners such as the euro at 0.5680 (0.5699 yesterday), and the pound at 38.21p (38.39 yesterday), but firmed on the kiwi-aussie cross to A90.72c (A90.52c).
The trade weighted index eased to 74.27 from 74.60.
A flow of domestic data is also expected to have an impact on the kiwi. Already muted consumer confidence and a softer than expected trade surplus had been released and the focus was now on tomorrow's current account data and Friday's GDP figure .
Mr Symonds said the kiwi dollar was "toppy" and could sell off over the next couple of weeks, which "could take it back to US75c/US74.5c.
He forecast a downside bias to the kiwi dollar tonight, picking a range of between US76.10c and US76.70c.
Rates:
5pm today 5pm yesterday
NZ dlr/US dlr US76.36c US76.74c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A90.72c A90.52c
NZ dlr/euro 0.5680 0.5699
NZ dlr/yen 93.76 94.76
NZ dlr/stg 38.21p 38.39p
NZ TWI 74.27 74.60
Australian dollar US84.17c US84.78c
Euro/US dollar 1.3441 1.3466
US dollar/yen 122.83 123.49
- NZPA
