The New Zealand dollar bounced back on Thursday as fears about an imminent strike by the US against Syria faded somewhat.
Westpac currency strategist Imre Speizer says the currency is still near the bottom of its recent trading range, having dropped from about 81.6 US cents to below 78 cents.
He says a military situation has not yet eventuated in Syria so the market has pushed that aside for now.
Mr Speizer says the kiwi has strengthened slightly, but if there was a full strike on Syria the kiwi would fall quite sharply.
At about 5.15pm, the kiwi was up nearly 0.75 cents at 78.31 US cents, up about 0.25 cents at 87.31 Australian cents, up about 0.25 of a penny at 50.43 British pence and up 0.75 of a euro at 58.01 and up about 1.1 yen.
The share market ended the day in positive territory, the benchmark Top 50 gained 11 points to 4521.
Devon Funds Management managing director Paul Harrison says Syria is weighing on an otherwise positive market.
He says there have been reasonable moves for the likes of Fonterra, Telecom and Mighty River Power.
Mr Harrison says the market reflects the fact the last few results out have been reasonably positive with an upgrade from Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and good results from GPG and Air New Zealand.
He says Mighty River Power is up by about 2.3% and people are likely to have been comforted by the result and the capital spend.
Devon Funds Management manages about $650 million of equities.
Shares in the Fonterra Shareholders fund rose 17 cents to $17.05 while shares in Mighty River Power gained 5 cents to $2.22.
