NZ dollar arrests quake slide
The New Zealand dollar traded in the tight range today on limited data, but arrested week-long slide sparked by the Christchurch earthquake and fears Greece's ongoing sovereign debt woes could spread in Europe.
The New Zealand dollar traded in the tight range today on limited data, but arrested week-long slide sparked by the Christchurch earthquake and fears Greece's ongoing sovereign debt woes could spread in Europe.
At 8am today the kiwi was US80.34c, it rose as high as US80.80c before sliding back down to US80.29c at 5pm.
BNZ currency strategist Mike Burrows told NZPA with not much going on the kiwi traded in the tight range during the day.
Against the Aussie, the kiwi was up to A76.30c at 5pm from A76.22c at 8am today.
It was little changed at 0.5674 euro from 0.5664 euro this morning, up slightly to 49.83 British pence from 49.75p and down to 64.69 Japanese yen from 64.81.
The trade weighted index was at 69.76 from 69.74.
Mr Burrows said Monday's Christchurch quake saw the kiwi dip as markets reacted in a kneejerk fashion to the headlines.
The kiwi slumped nearly US1c. Last Friday it had hit a 26-year high of US83.01c.
"The markets responded pretty quickly by selling down the kiwi. Maybe that was exacerbated by some excessive positioning in the currency. For the past week we have been making new highs, the market seems to have got itself a bit long.
"Those headlines flash up and everyone tries to get out pretty fast and sell some currency, but since then there's been very focus on the earthquake in Christchurch, the market went back very quickly to trading."
Over the week the European debt crisis saw traders showing risk aversion -- selling riskier currencies such as the kiwi -- however, early this morning slowing US growth data saw the kiwi recover, he said.
NZPA
Fri, 17 Jun 2011
Fri, 17 Jun 2011
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NZ dollar arrests quake slide
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