Dollar tops $US0.59

Press, 12 October 1985, Page 21

Dollar tops $US0.59

PA Wellington The New Zealand dollar capped off a record-break-ing week on the foreign exchange market yesterday by reaching another postdevaluaticn peak of SUSO39IO.

After opening in the morning at 573 c, little changed from Thursday, the dollar improved in the morning and then staged a strong spurt between 1230 pm. and 1 pm. to peak at 583 c before settling back to around 583 c. A dealer said with one trading bank confirmed later that the unit briefly reached SUSO39IO in volatile trading. At 3.10 p.m., the New Zealand dollar was worth USSB.4C, AustB3c. (post-de-valuation record), 41.4 p, 126.14 yen and 135 marks.

The Reserve Rank exchange rate index reached 74.7 at 1 pun, up from 733 in the morning — easily a post-devaluation record — and eased later to 743. Dealers said there was keen exporter interest, compared with the rest of the week when they had held back in the hope of a turn in the trend. One dealer said a US6Oc New Zealand dollar was not out of the question, but the unit would have to go through a downward correction before rebounding to this level. The United States dollar was trading nervously after unconfirmed reports of cen-

tral bank intervention by the United States Federal Reserve. The United States dollar closed at 2.6570/80 marks from 23575/90 the morning. Sterling was mostly unchanged at SUSI.4OSS/05 from its opening at 5U51.4098/C8 while the yen eased slightly to 21530/90, from 215.45/60. Tse value of the New Zealand dollar yesterday morning, compared with its value immediately before it was floated in March, was:

The selling rates are those quoted by the Bank of New

In New York the American dollar turned in a mixed performance as traders remained preoccupied with the prospect of further central bank intervention.

The dollar was helped late in the day by a Federal Reserve Board report of an unexpectedly large SUSS3 billion rise in the basic money supply in the final week of September. “I think you would see the dollar moving up quite sharply without intervention,” said Mr David Wilson, a foreign exchange trader at the Bank of Montreal in New York. In the United States, the dollar was quoted at 215.45 yen, compared with 21630 yen the previous day. Sterling climbed to $1.42 from $1.4175.

Mar 1 Oct 11 US. 44c 572c Sterling 41J5p 4032p Canada 61.2c 783c France 4.49f 4.62? HK 13.43 $4.44 Japan 114yen 123yen Nthlands U66g L71g S’pore 99c $L23 Switz 1.2£sf L25sf Germany 1.47dm 132dm Aust. 62.4c 81.7c