28 Aug 2014

New Zealand dollar hits 84 cents

6:33 pm on 28 August 2014

The New Zealand dollar bounced around today, rising to a high of 84 US cents on the back of some strong economic data out of Australia.

Rankin Treasury Advisory Director Derek Rankin said the New Zealand currency had seen some agressive selling recently, but expected it would continue to find stubborn support above 83 US cents.

"We've been under some selling pressure over the last week or so and I think, probably, the sellers got a bit carried away," he said.

"We got down towards that low 83.20 area and we've bounced today, currently we're just under 84. We've actually touched 84 at one point during the day, and mainly because the Australian dollar has lifted. They had better data out of Australia today and that's pulled the Australian dollar up and the New Zealand dollar has followed it."

A short time ago, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 83.88 US cents, little changed from the same time yesterday. It was at 89.62 Australian cents, 50.52 British pence, 0.6347 euro, 87.03 yen and 5.15 renminbi.

New Zealand shares retreated marginally from yesterday's record close, the benchmark Top 50 Index easing 5 points to 5238.

JB Were equities manager Rickey Ward said the market was still absorbing the swag of company results released over the last few weeks.

"Those companies that have presented pretty good results have continued to see strong support."

Air New Zealand shares rose 4 cents to $2.215, Auckland International Airport shares gained 5 cents to $3.78, shares in Ryman Healthcare sank 18 cents to $8 and Spark shares fell 9.5 cents to $2.945.

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