The New Zealand dollar closed slightly higher, having inched up in choppy trading today as Japanese investors turned again to high-yielding currencies.
By 5pm, the kiwi was at US70.30c from US70.18c late yesterday afternoon. The kiwi lost a little ground against the Aussie, to A85.79cfrom A85.92c, but jumped against the yen to 81.70 from 81.18.
The kiwi trod a range during the day of US70.04c to US70.58c, having been under pressure earlier in the session along with the Australian dollar as New York closed.
"Again, Japanese retail investors are chasing high-yield currencies such as the kiwi, so that's helped buoy the kiwi a little this afternoon, but it's been a bit of a mixed bag after again quite a volatile week," Bank of New Zealand forex manager Mike Symonds said.
There was no local data to provide direction, and next week's calendar is light, with just the wholesale trade survey on Thursday and quarterly building data on Friday.
High-yielding currencies were firmer against the yen on expectations that Japanese investment trusts would buy them as many new mutual funds focusing on overseas assets were due for launch on Friday.
Some investors were also holding back until a key speech by US Fed chairman Ben Bernanke for clues about prospects for a cut in the Fed's benchmark federal funds rate.
