NZ dollar opens little changed

The New Zealand dollar opened the local trading day stable against the greenback, with the currency mired between softer manufacturing data and moderately positive equity leads.
 
The kiwi recently traded at US81.70 cents, down from US81.78c at 5pm yesterday, while on the Trade Weighted Index of major trading partners' currencies it fell to 72.94 from 73.01.
 
Appetite for the New Zealand currency was curtailed by yesterday's Performance of Manufacturing Index data which showed that despite a small improvement in activity the overall sector remained in contraction for a third month.
 
That was set against a fairly positive session on global equity markets. On Wall Street, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.2 per cent to 1435.34, and Europe's Stoxx 600 Index rose 0.8 per cent to 270.84.
 
"Sentiment was fairly robust overnight... in the absence of other negative news European equities were on the ascendancy all night," said Kymberly Martin, a market strategist at BNZ.
 
On the crosses, the New Zealand dollar recently traded at 79.64 Australian cents, down from A79.51c at 5pm yesterday, and it rose to 64.02 yen from 63.82 yen. The kiwi fell to 63.26 euro cents from 63.57 euro cents, and slipped to 50.94 pence from 51.04p.
 
Martin said the kiwi is likely to trade between a range of US81.50c and US82.20c, with little to spur it out of its range bound pattern.

- © Fairfax NZ News