NZ dollar continues to be range bound

The New Zealand dollar continued to trade in a narrow range on a day in which Chinese economy data was the focus of investors' attention.

The NZ dollar was at US71.34c at 5pm from US71.40c at 8am and US71.17c at 5pm yesterday.

China's economy began 2010 at a cracking pace, logging surprisingly strong 11.9 per cent year-on-year growth in the first quarter that supports the case for tighter monetary policy to avert the risk of overheating, Reuters reported.

There was also positive news about the local economy when it was reported that manufacturing activity expanded at its fastest rate in 28 months in March.

The BNZ-Business NZ performance of manufacturing index (PMI) rose 2.7 points from February to 56.3 last month, the highest level of overall activity since November 2007.

The manufacturing data had little impact on the currency on a day dominated by Chinese data but its contrast to gloomy anecdotal reports was a subject for discussion among traders, as was a profit guidance downgrade by Telecom, which knocked the local sharemarket.

The NZ dollar edged up to 0.5234 euro at 5pm from 0.5211 at the same time yesterday, and lifted to 66.62 yen from 66.32 yen.

Against the Australian dollar, it was A76.40c from A76.35c yesterday.

The trade weighted index lifted to 65.85 from 65.69 yesterday.

- NZPA