The New Zealand dollar posted modest gains at the start of what is expected to be a quiet week ahead of the long Easter holiday weekend.
The NZ dollar rose to US70.72c at 5pm from US70.54c at the same time on Friday.
But it was sold down to around US70.30c in New York trading on Friday and rose today with the help of a short-covering rally in the euro market.
The euro rallied on Monday, from 10-month lows, as traders continued to unwind bets against the currency after euro zone policymakers agreed on Thursday to create a safety net for debt-laden Greece.
Early Saturday, the NZ dollar reached A77.99c against the Australian dollar, according to Reuters data, the highest level since the start of March. By 5pm today the NZ dollar had eased to A77.83c, which was up from A77.57c at Friday's local close.
"The cross has rebounded in the NZ dollar's favour, but is near tough resistance at US78c," Imre Speizer, currency strategist at Westpac said. "We need to see a clear break above that before becoming bullish," he said.
Rankin Treasury said it should be a relatively quiet week, with no major data out and Easter weekend in most of the financial world looming.
"The focus is increasingly on sovereign debt, with the debris over the Greek fiasco meaning that even greater attention will be on other European countries going forward."
The NZ dollar was at 0.5262 euro at 5pm from 0.5291 at the same time on Friday. It was at 65.52 yen from 65.24.
The trade weighted index was 66.00 at 5pm from 65.98 on Friday.
- NZPA
NZ dollar mixed at start of week
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