NZ dollar shows strength against yen
The New Zealand dollar was trading around 10-week highs against the yen when the local market opened today, but was down against a broadly strengthening euro.
The New Zealand dollar was trading around 10-week highs against the yen when the local market opened today, but was down against a broadly strengthening euro.
Against the greenback, the kiwi traded in a tight range overnight between about US71.05c and US70.70c, and by 8am was buying US70.96c, similar to its level at 5pm.
The US dollar remained on track for its best quarterly performance in 12 months on the view that the United States economy continued to improve, while investors rang in the start of a new Japanese fiscal year by selling the Japanese currency.
The euro was partly boosted by quarter-end demand, though traders said further gains were likely to be slight as markets remained worried about a Greek debt crisis.
Around 8am the NZ dollar was at 0.5253 euro, down from 0.5291 euro at 5pm yesterday, and it was slightly higher at 66.32 yen.
After falling during part of the night against the Australian currency, the NZ dollar regained some of the lost ground to be at A77.42c by the local open, having jumped yesterday afternoon from about A77.20c to around A77.55c after Australian retail sales data was weaker than expected. The trade weighted index fell to 66 at 8am from 66.19 at 5pm.
BNZ strategist Mike Jones said currencies had little firm direction overnight. While quarter-end selling weighted on both the yen and greenback, generally lacklustre US data and a downgrade of five Greek banks by Moody's kept risk appetite in check.
The kiwi's subdued night against the US dollar might have been due to a reluctance to invest ahead of US non-farm payrolls on Friday (local time), or perhaps it was due to a desire to beat Easter traffic, Mr Jones said.
A plunge by the Australian dollar had tended to stymie gains by the kiwi against the greenback.
NZPA
Thu, 01 Apr 2010
Thu, 01 Apr 2010
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NZ dollar shows strength against yen
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