The New Zealand dollar drifted through a quiet day's trading to finish at US58.35c at 5pm.
At 5pm on Friday, the kiwi was buying US58.18c. Today, it was fetching 0.5367 euro (0.5325).
BNZ currency strategist Sue Trinh said the kiwi had traded in much the same range since Friday, but had done
well on the back of negative economic news coming out of Europe.
"It's (the kiwi-euro cross) made multi-year highs in recent sessions," Ms Trinh told NZPA, noting the kiwi hit a three-year high of 0.5376 euro in early trading today.
Contracting economies in France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands had bolstered the kiwi's performance, she said.
"... with investors quite optimistic about this global growth or global recovery, currencies such as the kiwi, which is linked to the global growth cycle, is in favour against European currencies like the euro.
"That's why the kiwi-euro (cross) is doing a lot better than the kiwi-US (cross)," Ms Trinh said.
Against the aussie the kiwi was A89.64c (A89.35c), while against the greenback the aussie was at US65.09c (US65.13c).
The euro was at $US1.0872 at 5pm in Wellington from $US1.0928 at 5pm last night.
The US dollar was buying 117.60 yen (117.82).
On the crosses at 5pm, the kiwi was buying 68.61 yen (68.55), 37.07 pence (36.91), and 0.8268 Swiss francs (0.8216).
The monetary conditions index was at plus 313 (295), the trade-weighted index is still near 5-1/2 year highs at 63.10 (62.86), and 90-day bank bill yields were at 5.14 percent (5.15).
The February 2005 yields were at 5.27 percent (5.28), the November 2006s were at 5.50 percent (5.51), and the November 2011s were at 5.88 percent (5.90).
- NZPA
