NZ dollar unchanged against greenback

File Photo

The New Zealand dollar maintained recent gains today even though equity markets weakened.

It did so because the Australian dollar rose to near a three-month high after Australia reported a massive trade surplus for June as resource exports rose and imports stagnated. The A$3.5 billion surplus was twice as much as the market forecast and eclipsed the previous record.

The NZ dollar was at US73.44c at 5pm from US73.40c at 8am and US73.35c at 5pm yesterday. It had earlier reached a week-high of US73.60c.

It was little changed at A80.49c at 5pm from A80.50c at the same time yesterday.

"The Australian trade data was stronger and everything followed that even though we have had slightly weaker bourses," said Murray Hindley, chief currency dealer at ANZ.

Typically the NZ dollar eases when sharemarkets are weak but Mr Hindley said the local currency currently had a "bid" tone.

ANZ said in a briefing that a weak US dollar ensured some strength for the NZ dollar by default. Also the prices in Fonterra's latest online milkpowder auction were not as bad as expected.

Fonterra's milkpowder prices fell for the fourth consecutive month at Wednesday's online auction. The average selling price of all products dropped to US$3080 a tonne, triggering an 8.3 per cent drop in Fonterra's global dairy trade index. Prices have been falling since a 21-month high at the April auction.

Against the euro, the NZ dollar slipped to 0.5558 euro from 0.5568 yesterday.

It also weakened against the yen from 63.38 yesterday to 62.72 at 5pm today.

The trade weighted index fell to 67.72 from 67.78.

Key domestic data, the Household Labour Force Survey, is expected tomorrow. Economists predict the unemployment rate will increase from 6 per cent to between 6.3 and 6.5 per cent.

- NZPA