The New Zealand dollar rose on Thursday after figures showing a strong domestic economy and after comments from the Federal Reserve indicating it will be helping stimulate the US economy for some time to come.
Bank of New Zealand foreign exchange strategist Mike Jones says retail sales figures were weaker than expected but they still showed a rise in the September quarter after a very strong gain in the June quarter.
He says New Zealand has had some solid retail sales figures and more importantly consumer confidence also continues to soar.
"We've also seen some speakers out of the US Federal Reserve confirming for the market that US monetary policy is going to remain fairly easy and accommodative for a long time yet - so that's tended to undermine the US dollar and further bolster the kiwi."
Retail sales rose a seasonally adjusted 0.6% in the September quarter from the June quarter while the ANZ-Roy Morgan index showed consumer confidence is at its highest level in nearly four years.
At about 5pm on Thursday, the kiwi was trading 0.5 higher at 82.87 US cents, about a fifth of an Australian cent stronger at 88.62 cents, down marginally at 51.65 British pence, up slightly at 0.6151 euro and up more than half a yen at 82.52 yen.
Sharemarket makes slight gains overall
The sharemarket made slight gains overall, the benchmark Top 50 index rising 9 points to 4927.
Murray & Co director of wealth management Johnny Cochrane says unfavourable research reports have hurt stocks in the electricity sector.
He says it's an issue right across the sector and some of the analysts in particular for NZ Capital have reconsidered their evaluations in light of the probability of a Labour Green government and are pulling back their price target.
Mr Cochrane says that's putting pressure on Meridian and hydro power as well.
Meridian's instalment receipts fell half a cent to $1.04 while Mighty River Power shares fell as low as $2.14 before closing half a cent higher.
