The New Zealand dollar closed slightly higher this evening on the back of a surge in the euro, after a flurry of sales against the aussie had sent it down at midday.
A dealer told NZPA that the dollar had fallen at lunch after "local corporates chose to sell a
lot of kiwi -- particularly against the aussie."
That took it down to the day's lows around US67.11c she said.
Since then the kiwi had recovered "on the back of a bit of a surge in the euro".
At 5pm in Wellington the kiwi was buying US67.47c from US67.44c at 8.30am and US67.59c at last night's local close. Its range today was US67.38c to US67.62c.
It was fetching A89.73c from A89.91c at 8.30am today and A90.94c at 5pm yesterday. Against the greenback the aussie was buying US75.19c (US74.19c at 5pm yesterday).
Meanwhile, the greenback was buying 113.07 yen (112.35).
By the end of our local session the euro was sitting on US$1.2080 (US$1.2030).
On its crosses this evening, the kiwi was fetching 0.5586 euro (0.5622), 38.84 British pence (38.77), 0.8741 Swiss francs (0.8785) and 76.31 yen (75.94).
The dealer said the market was now waiting for US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan's semi-annual testimony to Congress tonight (tomorrow morning NZT).
"We don't really expect Greenspan to diverge too much from what he's already told the market, other than he's remaining quite upbeat on the US economy, not too concerned about the inflation pressure at the moment and that the measured pace of tightening (interest rate hikes) is going to continue," she said.
However, she said there is a little room for "nuance".
"That risk centres around whether he signals some kind of pause for the current tightening cycle, or whether he signals they are going to continue tightening through to 2006."
Elsewhere, the TWI was at 68.75 (68.66) and the monetary conditions index at plus 932 (927).
On the money markets, 90-day bank bill yields were unchanged at 7.03 per cent. July 2009 bond yields were at 5.81 per cent (5.79) and April 2015s were at 5.75 per cent (5.73).
- NZPA
<EM>Currency:</EM> Dollar fluctuates through day
The New Zealand dollar closed slightly higher this evening on the back of a surge in the euro, after a flurry of sales against the aussie had sent it down at midday.
A dealer told NZPA that the dollar had fallen at lunch after "local corporates chose to sell a
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