2 Oct 2013

NZ dollar weakens against US and Australian

7:20 pm on 2 October 2013

The New Zealand dollar fell against the US and Australia on Wednesday because the Reserve Bank of Australia has taken a more hawkish stance than expected.

ANZ Bank senior manager in the foreign exchange market, Sam Tuck, says part of the decline simply reflected a lack of buyers for New Zealand dollars.

He says it's been an interesting 24 hours and the New Zealand data has been supportive of the New Zealand dollar.

Mr Tuck says on Tuesday the markets were looking to a more doveish Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) which was more prone to cutting rates.

But he says after a Reserve Bank of Australia meeting it seemed the RBA was slightly less concerned about the global financial markets and which deemed policy was appropriate at its current setting.

At about 5.15pm, the kiwi was trading at 82.22 US cents and at 87.69 Australian cents.

The currency was down about a quarter of a penny at 50.83 British pence, down about half a euro at 0.6079 euro and has shed a little over a yen to 80.40.

NZ sharemarket up nearly 1%

The share market took its lead from investors in US stocks who remained calm after the first day of the government's shutdown with the key Standard & Poor's 500 Index rising nearly a percent.

New Zealand's benchmark Top 50 Index gained 25 points to 4769.

Among the gainers, Z Energy rose 9 cents to $3.97 as analysts upgraded their profit forecasts for the petrol station operator.

Abano Healthcare shares jumped 14 cents to $6.75 after the company said its share purchase plan, which had aimed to raised up to $9.25 million, attracted applications for more than $23.8 million worth of shares.

Abano said applications had to be scaled back.