The New Zealand dollar clawed its way off nine and a half year lows against the Australian dollar today on demand from exporters.The NZ dollar was at 77.10Ac at 5pm after dropping as low as 76.86Ac early today from 77.54Ac at 5pm yesterday. Around 8am the
The New Zealand dollar clawed its way off nine and a half year lows against the Australian dollar today on demand from exporters.
The NZ dollar was at 77.10Ac at 5pm after dropping as low as 76.86Ac early today from 77.54Ac at 5pm yesterday. Around 8am the NZ dollar was buying about 77.02Ac.
"We've been bubbling around near 10-year lows around 77USc. There was speculative interest to push kiwi-aussie lower but that ran into quite heavy demand from exporters to hedge the cross rate at quite low levels," said Mike Jones, currency strategist at BNZ.
The NZ dollar was higher against the greenback on a day in which stronger-than-expected Australian gross domestic product (GDP) data reinforced the Reserve Bank of Australia's move this week to hike the official interest rate by 25 basis points to 4%.
The NZ dollar was at 69.70USc at 5pm from 69.68USc at the same time yesterday.
Mr Jones said the 0.9% quarterly rise in Australian GDP was in line with expectations but revisions to previous data made the annual figure higher than expected.
"We saw kiwi dragged a bit higher in line with the aussie," he said. "Though really the aussie dollar and kiwi dollar have been sidelined for most of the day and the focus has been on sterling."
Sterling rose on a squeeze of short positions, hopes that Greece will make budget deficit cuts and on strong stock futures.
The NZ dollar has been at near quarter century highs against the British currency but it fell to 46.28p by 5pm today from 46.60p at the local open and 46.70p at 5pm yesterday.
The NZ dollar was buying €0.5110 from €0.5152 at the same time yesterday, and was down to ¥61.81 from ¥62.26 yesterday.
The trade weighted index was down to 64.39 at 5pm from 64.69 yesterday.
