NZ dollar starts week strongly and is seen supported
The New Zealand dollar started the week strongly and is expected to remain supported ahead of the Reserve Bank's interest rate review on Thursday.By 5pm today the NZ dollar was at 71.84USc from 71.69USc at 8am and 71.10USc at 5pm Friday. It rose as high a
The New Zealand dollar started the week strongly and is expected to remain supported ahead of the Reserve Bank's interest rate review on Thursday.
By 5pm today the NZ dollar was at 71.84USc from 71.69USc at 8am and 71.10USc at 5pm Friday. It rose as high as 72.02USc today, its highest level since January 21.
The NZ dollar rose during the weekend when an improved risk appetite lifted equities, commodities, risk currencies and United States yields.
Greece formally requested aid from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union, leading to a sigh of relief from markets that a rescue process was finally under way.
Westpac expects the currency to maintain an upward bias this week. A successful break of 72USc would make 74USc a target in coming weeks.
The RBNZ is expected to keep the official cash rate unchanged at 2.5 percent on Thursday and this is seen as the main event of the week.
The NZ dollar also reached a new three-month high against the yen, trading to ¥67.90 before settling at ¥67.66 at 5pm from ¥66.39 at the same time on Friday.
It was 77.44Ac at 5pm from 77.07Ac on Friday.
Against the euro the NZ dollar is trading at levels not seen since early 2008. It was €0.5374 at 5pm from €0.5371 at 5pm on Friday.
The trade weighted index was 66.89 from 66.37 on Friday.
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