1 Dec 2014

Kiwi recovers after fall against US

6:14 pm on 1 December 2014

The New Zealand currency has recovered in late afternoon trading, after falling more than half a cent against the US dollar earlier today, as concerns about a global economic slowdown persist.

Westpac currency strategist Imre Speizer said weak economic data out of China, also did the kiwi dollar no favours.

He said the Kiwi was down about half a cent which was mainly due to weaker than expected manufacturing activity reported in China, which is New Zealand's main trading partner.

Mr Speizer said global growth concerns were keeping the Kiwi-US depressed for now and it was expected that the Kiwi would fall further against the US in the next few months to around 75 cents.

At about 5pm on Monday, the Kiwi was trading at 78.09 US cents, 92.43 Australian, 50.01 British pence, 0.6271 euro, 92.87 yen and 4.8 renminbi.

Shares little changed

New Zealand shares were little changed, despite a big sell-off in Australian shares after oil prices tumbled to a five-year low.

The benchmark Top 50 Index 5 points to 5430, while at about 5pm on Monday Australia's S&P 200 Index was down 1.8 percent.

Forsyth Barr investment advisor Ryan Cutts said it was mostly stock-specific news driving local share prices, today.

Finzsoft shares jumped $1.16 to $3.98, Hellaby shares gained 14 cents to $3.20 and shares in Chorus climbed 7.5 cents to $2.14.