Kiwi rallies after boost to beleaguered greenback

THE KIWI lifted slightly against the greenback yesterday after stronger trading in the afternoon. This followed recent weakness in the New Zealand dollar after the US currency showed strength.

As currency trading interest shifted towards the US dollar from risk assets like the New Zealand dollar, it dipped.

But yesterday the kiwi traded at US80.96C, up from US80.75C in the morning.

ASB head of Institutional FX sales Tim Kelleher said the kiwi had rallied back up during the afternoon session.

‘‘Most markets were pretty well flat this afternoon so that’s why. The bottom of the range for the kiwi has been pretty good with strong support at around US80.00C to US80.50C so when we got down to that level this morning we saw some good exporter buying as well,’’ Kelleher said.

‘‘Whether or not the sell-off continues we’ll wait and see but it’s going to need equities to sell off which they haven’t done and commodities to keep selling off for the currency to move too much further.’’

On the trade-weighted index the kiwi was at 72.50, up slightly from 72.46 in the morning.

The kiwi recently traded at A77.41c, up from A77.31c. It rose to ¥68.05 from ¥67.53.

It was up to 0.6214 from 0.6199 in the morning. It rose to 51.72 pence from 51.51 pence earlier.