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The New Zealand dollar reached three-week highs against major currencies, supported by higher Reserve Bank inflationary expectations and marginally improved business confidence.
It rose through the night against the euro, yen and Australian dollar but the picture was less straightforward against a broadly rising greenback.
At 8am today, the kiwi was buying US79c, the same as its level at 5pm yesterday.
The NZ dollar topped US79c for the first time in three weeks early afternoon yesterday, spiking up to its recent peak around US79.20c a few hours later.
Early last night the kiwi briefly dropped to around US78.60c, then spent the rest of the overnight session between about US78.80c and US79.10c.
The ANZ bank today said the NZ dollar should now find good support initially around US78.75c and look to build a base.
Marginally improved May business confidence in a National Bank survey and higher Reserve Bank inflationary expectations were largely responsible for the expected topside break for the NZ dollar, ANZ said.
Against the euro, the kiwi rose from 0.5004 at 5pm yesterday to 0.5033 at 8am today, peaking at a three-week high of 0.5038 just before the local open.
The pattern was similar against the yen and the Australian dollar.
Against the yen, the NZ dollar rose from 81.62 to 82.36, peaking at 82.45, while the kiwi also moved from A82.15c against the aussie to A82.39c at today's local open, having topped A82.40c.
The trade weighted index was 70.16 at 8am today from 69.91 at yesterday's local close.
- NZPA