NZ dollar rises, US weakens

The New Zealand dollar rose today but the move was again really a United States dollar story.

The US dollar slid on continued uncertainty surrounding the proposed US$700 billion ($1.05 trillion) US government bailout for the ailing US financial sector.

A report in the South China Morning Post that Chinese regulators have told domestic banks to stop interbank lending to US financial institutions also increased the uncertainty.

The NZ dollar rose to US68.60c at 5pm from US68.40c at 8am and US68.03c at 5pm yesterday.

Bank of New Zealand currency strategist Danica Hampton said the focus should turn to second quarter New Zealand gross domestic product data out tomorrow, expected to confirm a technical recession of two quarterly declines in a row.

The market consensus is for a 0.5 per cent fall.

At today's local close the NZ dollar was at 72.65 yen from 71.90 at 5pm yesterday, while against the euro the kiwi was up to 0.4665 from 0.4632.

The kiwi was at A81.78c by 5pm against the Australian dollar from A81.45c at yesterday's local close, and the trade weighted index was up to 64.04 from 63.58.

- NZPA