Currency: NZ dollar at highest in 10 weeks

The New Zealand dollar climbed above US57c for the first time in 10 weeks as risk appetite improved after United States Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner outlined the details of a bank rescue plan.

By 8am the kiwi was buying US57.12c up from US56.52c at 5pm yesterday.

BNZ Capital currency strategist Danica Hampton said the NZ dollar gained against the greenback as global equities surged and investors were cheered by the US Treasury's new programme.

The strong rebound in global equities and improving risk appetite bolstered demand for growth sensitive currencies such as the NZ dollar, particularly against the yen.

By today's local open the NZ dollar was at 55.33 yen, near an 11-week high against the Japanese currency reached a few hours earlier.

It was up from 54.45 yen at yesterday's local close.

Ms Hampton said that in addition to a range of speculative players, Japanese accounts had shown solid appetite for the NZ dollar yesterday and overnight.

The NZ dollar also reached a 10-week high against the euro around 0.4205 early today, from 0.4136 at 5pm, before easing to 0.4190 by 8am.

The kiwi reached its highest level in nearly 10 weeks against the Australian dollar above A81.50c early today but was down to A81.28c by the local open, only slightly above the A81.10c at the local close. The trade weighted index rose to 56.41 at 8am from 55.88 at 5pm.

- NZPA