Kiwi takes flight as risk sentiment turns further positive

Daily Currency Update

NZD - New Zealand Dollar

The New Zealand dollar advanced for a third day in a row on Friday, putting it within touching distance of 0.71. Opening this morning at 0.7071, the Kiwi has enjoyed a stellar run of late, registering a near 2.15% gain over the course of last week.

The Kiwi found its feet last week on the back of upbeat equity market movements which in turn were spurred on by better-than-expected quarterly earnings and retail sales figures in the US. The positivity in global share markets spread to risk-aligned currencies such as the Kiwi which in turn led to a small sell-off in safe haven currencies such as the greenback and Japanese yen. Adding further support to the Kiwi is reports that the Chinese central bank expects risk of contagion from the Evergrande Groups’ collapse is “controllable”; easing market concerns about a chain reaction affecting the world's second-largest economy.

Moving into a new week, the Kiwi is set to initially take direction from our local CPI report before turning offshore to observe China’s GDP figures.