Kiwi back on rise

Press, 17 March 1987, Page 41

Kiwi back on rise

PA Wellington Exporter buying and people re-stocking on New Zealand dollars brought the unit up yesterday from its opening level after a sharp fall over the week-end. Near the close of trade the kiwi dollar stood at U556.30/37C compared with its U555.55/65C opening and U556.68/75C end on Friday. After the foreign exchange market had closed in Wellington on Friday a move down by the Australian unit had spilled over into selling of the local unit, dealers said.

Stop loss orders were triggered on the currency’s way down, intensifying selling pressure, and selling out of Europe had given the unit another push so it sank below US55c, they said. “All the longs were cleaned out so they had to go in and buy it (the New Zealand dollar) back again,” one dealer said. Exporter buying had

also helped the currency back up. The unit was likely to consolidate and trade in a range between U556.10C to U556.70c in the near future, they said. Reflecting the kiwi dollar’s recovery, the Reserve Bank trade weighted index climbed to 66.2 at 3 p.m. from 65.7 at 9 a.m., but it was still short of its 66.7 fix at 3 p.m. on Friday. In Sydney the Australian dollar finished higher at U568.06/11C from its U567.70/75c opening on active corporate buying. The dollar’s recovery, ahead of the release of February balance of payments data today came after a sharp fall in London and New York markets on Friday. In trading yesterday the dollar bounced off an early low U567.30c and pushed to U567.70c in lumpy corporate buying with orders of $5O million not uncommon. Technical trading led the advance

over 68c to a high of 68.10 c before profit-taking and Japanese sales stemmed the day’s gains. The Australian dollar had fallen to U566.72C lows in London after stop/ loss orders were triggered in late Asian sales. The Reserve Bank was said to have been a buyer of Australian dollars at the lower levels in London.

The Australian dollar finished at 54.6 on the Reserve Bank’s trade weighted index from Friday’s 55.1. Earlier, the ANZ Bank’s index was lower at 67.66 points from 68.62.

The Australian dollar was mostly easier on the cross rates at 1.257 Deutsche marks from 1.2702, 103.71 yen from 104.88, 43.16 p from 43.05 p, 1.0512 Swiss francs from 1.0641, but up at 5NZ1.2092 from 5NZ1.2060.