The New Zealand dollar sat on this week's gains today, closing the session just shy of five-year highs.
It closed at US56.60c, slightly above yesterday's close of US56.54c and not far from the five-year high of US56.75 touched on Wednesday.
Dealers said there was little prospect of the kiwi losing its upward
momentum after the Reserve Bank's hardline monetary policy statement yesterday.
While not ruling out rate cuts later this year, the bank dampened expectations, particularly of any cut any time soon. It also accepted there was a risk of the kiwi appreciating further.
The high yielding kiwi has certainly not lost any of lustre compared with the euro after the European Central Bank cut interest rates last night. The quarter point rate cut and the accompanying commentary was milder than some traders had expected but still leaves kiwi with an edge.
The euro closed here at $US1.0978, coming off a four-year high of $US1.1012 in earlier Asian trading.
The main influence on the kiwi and all other currencies is the situation in Iraq and the end of week jobs data in the US.
The Australian dollar was steady on US61.43c compared with its US61.50c close yesterday.
On the crosses, the kiwi was buying A92.20c (A92c.00c yesterday), 0.5153 euro (0.5150), 0.7540 Swiss francs (0.7513), 66.45 yen (66.26) and 0.3540 pence (0.3528).
On the money market, 90-day bills were at 5.81 percent (5.80), the monetary conditions index was at plus 259 (plus 247), and the trade-weighted index was at 61.59 (61.46).
The April 2004 government bonds were unchanged at 5.37 percent, the November 2006s were at 5.33 percent (5.31) and the November 2011s were at 5.70 percent (5.65).
- NZPA
