NZ dollar rockets above US75c

The New Zealand dollar has leapt through a critical benchmark this morning.

The kiwi climbed above US75c for the first time in 15 months, rocketing up more than 1c to near US75.5c.

This high level will be alarming to exporters.

By 8am the kiwi was buying US75.37c, up from US74.37c at 5pm yesterday.

The NZ dollar also reached a 15-month high of 0.5047 euro early today.

Against the Japanese currency the kiwi peaked at a one-year high 68.48 yen, easing to 68.35 yen by the local open from 67.54 yesterday evening.

The ANZ bank said risk appetites appeared unquenched as markets expected interest rates in the United States to remain lower into 2010.

After taking a breather at the end of last week, US equities pushed higher to start the week, with analysts' expectations of earnings continuing to be exceeded, giving investors confidence to push equities higher.

When risk appetites were strong, the NZ and Australian dollars were often well sought after, and that was the case overnight, ANZ said.

The correlation with equities looked to be back, as gains in the Dow Jones industrial average translated into gains in the antipodean currencies.

The NZ dollar managed to outperform the aussie, largely due to a function of less liquidity on the NZ dollar side, ANZ said.

"This continues to be a source of much frustration as the NZD side should be underperforming based on relative fundamentals."

That was especially so as the Reserve Bank of Australia had already started hiking interest rates and there was increasing talk that the next move would be 50 basis points.

The kiwi was up to A81.22c by 8am from A80.96c at 5pm, while the trade weighted index lifted to 67.34 from 66.74.

- NZPA