Kiwi falls nearly 1c

Press, 14 October 1986, Page 31

Kiwi falls nearly 1c

PA Wellington Selling pressure pushed the New Zealand dollar down almost USlc to 5U50.5015/25 near the close of trade from its 5U50.5110/20 opening. Early in the day the unit had eased on profittaking to $U50.5090/00 triggering sell orders, dealers said. Some believed a single sell order of about $35 million had also helped the fall. The unit reached the day’s low of $U50.5015 in morning trade, and had stabilised during the afternoon, they said. Dealers said the currency could well fall further in the next few days, but it had not

necessarily changed direction. “It rose quickly to 51c (from U547.3C) within a month,” one dealer said. “It would not hurt if it went below US49c for a while” Another said the unit’s future was uncertain in the short term. There was a lot of sizable corporate business being done at the moment, and “it depends whether buyers or sellers were the business of the day.” But he said he was not bearish about the currency, instead it was likely to stay fairly steady around its present levels. Measured on the Reserve Bank trade

weighted index the unit fell to 61.8 at 3 p.m. from 62.5 in the morning. Reflecting the fall, cross rate values for the unit in the afternoon eased to Aust7B.9c, 0.997 Deutsche marks, 35,1 p and 77.6 yen. The US dollar fell further against the Deutsche mark to 1.9795/ 10 DM from 1.9830/60 in the morning, but it firmed slightly to 154.35/ 50 yen compared with 154.10/40. Sterling eased to $U51.4318/28 near the close of trade from its 1.4330/50 opening. The Australian dollar also fell slightly to $U50.6365/72 compared with 0.6380/87 in the morning.