NZD up on positive sentiment

The New Zealand dollar rose against the greenback today as positive sentiment from Friday's New York session continued to flow through the morning market here.

The kiwi recently traded at US81.33c, up from US81.21c in the morning. It was at 73.10 on the Trade Weighted Index against major trading partners' currencies, up slightly from 73.08 in the morning. 

Westpac market strategist Imre Speizer said the kiwi's movements were dull on the day. 

"The big moves were on Friday night, initially in London where it was a downer on the Israeli conflict, then in the New York session there was a good bounce back on possible signs the fiscal cliff negotiations [were] proceeding for the better," Speizer said.

In the United States, the speaker of the house had commented that talks were progressing between Republican and Democrat parties regarding the threat of US$600 billion in automatic tax hikes at the end of the year.

"The rise today was just an extension of the positive risk appetite from the last few hours of New York trading. That tone continued for a few hours this morning."

On the crosses, the kiwi recently traded at 78.37 Australian cents, down from A78.51c earlier. It was at 63.71 euro cents, down from 63.77 euro cents in the morning. Against the British pound, the kiwi eased to 51.08 pence from 51.11 pence earlier. It rose slightly to 66.07 Japanese yen from 66.04 yen.

Speizer expected the kiwi to trade between US80.50c and US82.00c overnight, but with a negative bias overall for the week's trading. Tomorrow, markets would be looking to a speech from the Reserve Bank of Australia governor, Glenn Stevens.

- © Fairfax NZ News