The New Zealand dollar today sank lower against the United States dollar, losing almost a full cent against it in the past 24 hours, a currency dealer said.
At 5pm, the kiwi was at US70.75c, having finished Friday's session 87 basis points higher at US71.62c.
It began today's session atUS71.23c, and ranged between US70.63c and US61.29c.
A National Bank currency dealer said the kiwi was sold-off by offshore investors, who were instead snapping up United States currency.
"The US dollar is strengthening against a range of currencies and commodities as well," the dealer told NZPA today.
"It's (the falling kiwi-US dollar cross) going to gain momentum. It's been all one-way traffic today, and it's the same with the Australian dollar," he said.
"There's big selling (of the New Zealand dollar) out of China."
The dealer picked the kiwi to fall to about US66c in coming months. The kiwi-US cross had peaked in March, the dealer said.
"I think the kiwi is on the verge of pretty large sort of decline... (at the moment) we're hitting up a very important support level, which will break," the dealer said.
This appeared consistent with the greenback overnight climbing to a seven-month high against the euro and three-month peaks versus the Swiss franc and sterling on recent robust data.
Meanwhile, against the aussie, the kiwi was buying A93.43c (A93.65c at 5pm on Friday).
On its other crosses the kiwi was buying 0.5612 euro (0.5653), 76.15 yen (76.52), 38.28 British pence (38.40), and 0.8670 Swiss francs (0.8716).
The greenback was buying 107.64 yen (106.85), the euro was buying US$1.2607 (US$1.2675), and the aussie was at US75.72c (US76.52c).
The trade-weighted index was at 70.21 (70.70), while the monetary conditions index was at plus 1038 (1072).
On the money markets, 90-day bank bill yields were at 7.04 per cent (7.03), July 2009 bonds were at 5.87 per cent (5.90), and April 2015s were at 5.78 per cent (5.79).
