The New Zealand dollar was little changed in local trading after Chinese manufacturing figures beat expectations, as investors rethink last week's action when the Federal Reserve didn't embark on slowing down its pace of printing money.
The New Zealand dollar was little changed in local trading after Chinese manufacturing figures beat expectations, as investors rethink last week's action when the Federal Reserve didn't embark on slowing down its pace of printing money.
The kiwi traded at 83.61 US cents at 5pm in Wellington from 83.49 cents at the start of the day and 83.62 cents on Friday in New York. The trade-weighted index slipped to 77.85 from 77.97 last week.
The local currency had little reaction to a six-month high in a gauge of Chinese manufacturing, which beat economists' predictions. Investors are still mulling the impact of the Fed's decision to retain its US$85 billion monthly bond buying programme, which will continue to devalue the greenback.
"We've seen investors get cleaned out on both sides and they've now gone shy from dipping their toes back in the market," said Mike Jones, currency strategist at Bank of New Zealand in Wellington. "It's pretty light volumes and thin trading at the moment - it doesn't look like we'll get much of a gee-up this week."
A BusinessDesk survey of seven traders and strategists predicts the kiwi will trade between 82 US cents and 84.80 cents this week. Four expect the currency to decline while two expect it to advance and one says it will remain unchanged.
The kiwi traded at 61.79 euro cents at 5pm in Wellington from 61.82 cents on Friday in New York after Germany's incumbent governing party, the Christian Democratic Union, won a landslide victory in the country's general election on Sunday.
The local currency decreased to 82.87 yen from 83.03 yen on Friday in New York, and fell to 88.71 Australian cents from 89.01 cents. It traded at 52.19 British pence from 52.23 pence last week.
(BusinessDesk)
