The New Zealand dollar trailed off during the day, largely held up against the Australian dollar despite an interest rate rise across the Tasman.By 5pm, the kiwi was at 72.96USc, a touch firmer than the same time yesterday, but below its more than three-m
The New Zealand dollar trailed off during the day, largely held up against the Australian dollar despite an interest rate rise across the Tasman.
By 5pm, the kiwi was at 72.96USc, a touch firmer than the same time yesterday, but below its more than three-month high above 73.20USc earlier today.
Against the Australian dollar, the kiwi was at 78.91Ac from 78.76Ac late yesterday afternoon.
The kiwi was up against the euro, yen and sterling, helping push the trade weighted index to 68.28 from 68.00 yesterday.
The Reserve Bank of Australia hiked the key interest rate by 25 basis points this afternoon to 4.5%, as expected, but failed to back up hopes for a rate rise in June.
The kiwi took a brief tumble after the news then recovered, mirroring the move in the Australian dollar, said Imre Speizer, Westpac senior market strategist.
However, there may be more action overnight baed on the RBA decision when offshore markets take their own look.
While today's domestic wage and salary data provoked little reaction, Thursday's official unemployment data, the Household Labour Force Survey, was likely to get some reaction as it was notoriously difficult to predict, Mr Speizer said.
The US dollar gained against the yen today, boosted by solid US data which raised the likelihood of higher interest rates this year. That was in contrast with the Bank of Japan, which was expected to lag on rates.
