Kiwi up in quiet trade

The New Zealand dollar rose against the greenback in a dull day of limited activity on all the crosses, despite the return of US trading after that market slowed for Hurricane Sandy.

The kiwi recently traded at US82.20c, up from US82.17c in the morning. It was unchanged on the Trade Weighted Index against major trading partners' currencies at 73.30.

ASB Institutional head of institutional FX sales Tim Kelleher said the kiwi currency had one of the quietest days he had ever seen, shifting only 12 basis points all day.

"It has been the start of the month today so possibly people were quite busy doing other stuff. The kiwi did not move much on the crosses or even against the aussie. There was no real rhyme or reason to it," Kelleher said.

"Overnight, obviously it was going to get some more life with the return of New York but it needed some more people trading in it back on. There was no economic data to drive it."

On the crosses, the kiwi recently traded at 79.21 Australian cents, up slightly from A79.15c in the morning. It was at 63.40 euro cents, up just barely from 63.39 euro cents earlier. It rose to 50.95 pence from 50.94 pence against the pound in the morning. Against the Japanese yen the kiwi recently traded at 65.79 yen, up from 65.58 yen earlier.

Overnight, Kelleher expected the kiwi to trade within a tight range of US82.00c to US82.40c. Markets would be looking to US employment figures due out during the next few days in terms of data releases.

- © Fairfax NZ News