Currency: Dollar tackles US61c

The New Zealand dollar climbed back to its highest level against the greenback in more than a week today.

The NZ dollar rose to US61.13c on Wednesday night but then lost much of its gains as Wall Street turned negative on its close.

By 8am today the NZ dollar fell back to US60.52c. But it rallied again to trade as high as US61.05c during the session and was US60.85c at 5pm.

The NZ dollar strength came care of a broad slide in the US dollar after the US Federal Reserve said it considered buying more securities at its last policy meeting.

Such purchases inject money into the system. The US dollar fell to its lowest in almost five months against a basket of currencies during the Asian session. Sterling rose to its highest level in more than six months.

The NZ dollar was little changed against the euro by 5pm at 0.4416 euro from 0.4410 yesterday. It was unchanged at 57.50 yen, but edged up against the Australian dollar to A78.43c from A77.80c. The trade weighted index was up to 58.21 from 57.87.

Reuters currency rates:

5pm today 5pm yesterday

NZ dlr/US dlr US60.85c US60.04c

NZ dlr/Aust dlr A78.43c A77.80c

NZ dlr/euro 0.4416 0.4410

NZ dlr/yen 57.50 57.50

NZ dlr/stg 38.58p 38.76p

NZ TWI 58.21 57.87

Aust dlr/US dlr 77.52c 77.14c

Euro/US dlr 1.3770 1.3612

US dlr/yen 94.50 95.70

- NZPA