Kiwi extends rally after weak Aust employment data
Funds cross the Tasman in search of better returns in a more stable economy.
The New Zealand dollar extended its gains after weaker than expected Australian employment figures saw funds cross the Tasman in search of better returns in a more stable economy.
The kiwi rose to 85.92 US cents at 5pm in Wellington from 85.74 cents at 8am and 85.24 cents yesterday.
The trade-weighted index touched a new post-float high at 79.11, and was 79.06 at 5pm from 78.36 yesterday.
The Australian dollar fell a quarter of a cent to $US1.0520 after government figures showed the nation's unemployment rate rose to a three-year high 5.6 percent last month and the number of people employed shrank by 36,100.
The kiwi gained to 81.66 Australian cents from 81.40 cents yesterday.
"People are buying kiwi after the Aussie employment numbers," says Tim Kelleher, head of institutional FX sales NZ at ASB Institutional.
The transTasman currencies have been rallying in recent days as a flood of freshly printed Japanese money looks for new homes, which has helped stock markets rally.
Finance Minister Bill English today said the local currency does not look likely to fall any time soon, with central banks injecting massive amounts of stimulus to reinvigorate their ailing economies.
"Equities have had their longest rally without a correction of 5 percent – it's quite unhealthy," he says. "Everything looks overstretched."
New Zealand's manufacturing sector expanded for a fourth month in March, according to the BNZ-BusinessNZ performance of manufacturing index, while house sale prices reached a new record and sales volumes grew to a six-year high last month, according to Real Estate Institute figures.
The local currency gained to 65.79 euro cents from 65.12 cents yesterday and advanced to 56.05 British pence from 55.60 pence. It jumped to 85.58 yen from 84.47 yen yesterday.
(BusinessDesk)
Paul McBeth
Thu, 11 Apr 2013
Thu, 11 Apr 2013
© All content copyright NBR. Do not reproduce in any form without permission, even if you have a paid subscription.
Kiwi extends rally after weak Aust employment data
28622