Kiwi dollar opens firmer in quiet market

The New Zealand dollar opened the local trading session slightly firmer after a night of little change on overseas foreign exchange markets.

The kiwi was at US69.82c at 8am, compared with US69.77c at 5pm yesterday.

ANZ senior interest rate strategist David Croy said in a market commentary that today's release of the fourth quarter producer price index data may have little effect on a "moribund" market.

"Global holidays will continue to take their toll on liquidity and desire of markets to break from recent ranges," he said.

All currencies had been trading in extremely narrow ranges. Some stimulus to trade was quickly extinguished as the markets entered the US President's Day holiday time-zone.

Imre Speizer, of Westpac Global Markets Strategy Group, said markets were awaiting the outcome of the Eurozone meeting on Greece.

The New Zealand dollar had immediate support at US69.00c, while US70.00c remained tough to break.

Against the Australian dollar, the NZ dollar eased slightly to A78.52c at 8am from A78.55c at 5pm. It was also lower at 62.82 yen, from 62.90, but up at 0.5134 euro, from 0.5124. The trade-weighted index was barely changed at 64.72 from 64.71.

- NZPA