The New Zealand dollar spent the afternoon consolidating in the mid US63c range after pushing to three fresh highs in the past 12 hours, a broker said.
At 5pm, the kiwi was fetching US63.45c (from US62.87c at 5pm yesterday), while the Australian dollar was at US72.31c (US71.53c).
Westpac forex sales manager Mike
Burns said the kiwi hit US63.80c at 1.45pm, its highest level since October 1997, before retreating to its closing level.
The session low was US63.52c, with support about the US63.40c mark, Mr Burns told NZPA today.
Last night, the kiwi pushed to a fresh six-year high at US63.56c before a resurgent euro towed it up to US63.72c.
Mr Burns said the kiwi had started today's domestic session firmer against the greenback and euro, but "neither has kicked on in our trading day."
The price action was happening in New York and Europe and the kiwi was consolidating in the Asian time zone, largely on the back of broad US dollar weakness.
The greenback was reacting to concerns about trade factors and terror attacks, Mr Burns said.
A currency strategist at New York research firm IDEAglobal, Sean Callow, said confidence in the greenback was fragile.
A recent US government report signalled declining demand for securities in the US, leading investors to seek higher yields in countries like New Zealand, which, in turn, boosted its currency.
New Zealand's official cash rate of 5.0 per cent is four percentage points high than the Federal Reserve's 1 per cent target rate.
Meanwhile, the euro was at US$1.1943 (US$1.1777).
The euro's rise was largely due to a sharp fall in the greenback against the other major currencies.
At 5pm, the greenback was buying 108.23 yen (108.84).
On the crosses, the kiwi was buying A87.75c (A87.97c), 68.68 yen (68.48), 37.30 pence (37.15), 0.5314 euro (0.5343), and 0.8219 Swiss francs (0.8318).
The Australian dollar was at $1.1390 ($1.1368).
The trade weighted index was at 64.63 (64.49), while the monetary conditions index was at plus-464 (451), and 90-day bank bills were at 5.42 per cent (5.41).
On the debt market, April 2004 bonds were unchanged at 5.29 per cent, February 2006s were 5.74 per cent (5.78), and November 2011s were 6.09 per cent (6.16).
- NZPA
