The New Zealand dollar climbed about 20 basis points against its transtasman counterpart after Australia lost jobs last month when analysts were picking a gain, and after New Zealand's central bank talked down expectations of a rate cut.
The kiwi dollar rose to A76.05c at 5pm from A75.67c immediately before the jobs data release, and up from A75.96c on Wednesday. It rose to US77.98c at 5pm from US77.77c at 8am and was little changed from US77.97c late on Wednesday.
Australia shed 6900 jobs in November and the unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage points to 5.3 per cent, falling short of the expected 10,000 jobs gain expected in a Bloomberg survey of economists. That stoked demand for the New Zealand dollar.
The kiwi was little changed at € 58.18c from € 58.11c on Wednesday and slipped to 60.55 from 60.63. It fell to 49.64p against the British pound from 49.99p on Wednesday. The trade-weighted index was little changed at 68.94 from 68.98. BusinessDesk