Kiwi regains some lost ground

Monday 9th May 2011

The New Zealand dollar managed to recoup a little of the ground it lost last week against the greenback to be hovering around US79c when the local market opened for the new week.

At 8am the kiwi was buying US79.10c, up from US78.62c at 5pm on Friday. It started rising early Saturday, peaking around US79.70c after data showed employers in the United States added 244,000 jobs last month, well above what economists had expected.

The NZ dollar also rose strongly against the European currency, peaking at its highest level in nearly three weeks around 0.5526 euro on Saturday. At 8am today the kiwi was at 0.5502 euro from 0.5403 at 5pm on Friday.

The euro posted its biggest weekly loss against the US dollar since January and further losses were seen as likely, as sovereign debt concerns reappeared after a German news report, later denied, suggested Greece had raised the possibility of leaving the euro zone.

Market participants said the pullback in the euro was a natural correction in a currency that, at one point, had surged more than 10% so far this year.

The NZ dollar also strengthened to A73.80c against the Australian dollar at 8am today from A73.57c at 5pm on Friday, and was up to 63.73 yen from 63.29. The trade weighted index rose to 68.09 from 67.54.

NZPA

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