Kiwi over 83 US cents, plenty to go says Westpac's Speizer

NZ dollar over 83 US cents, plenty to go says Westpac's Speizer

By Paul McBeth

Sept. 21 (BusinessDesk) - The New Zealand dollar rose above 83 US cents as stock markets across Asia rallied with the debut of Apple Inc's latest iPhone model stoking demand for tech stocks, bolstering investors' appetite for higher-yielding, riskier assets.

The kiwi rose to 83.03 US cents at 5pm in Wellington from 82.86 cents at 8am, and 82.44 cents yesterday. The trade-weighted index advanced to 73.53 from 73.18 yesterday.

Asian technology companies, including Samsung Electronics, got a lift from the iPhone 5 going on sale, lifting stocks across the region. Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 0.6 percent in afternoon trading, while South Korea's Kospi rose 0.5 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 0.8 percent. The improvement in investment sentiment underpinned gains in risk-sensitive assets, such as the kiwi dollar, which is largely unchanged on the week.

"Risk sentiment is a bit better today than it's been for the last few days," said Imre Speizer, market strategist at Westpac Banking in Auckland. "The kiwi has upward momentum."

Speizer said the kiwi may go as high as 84.70 US cents in the coming weeks if investors stay upbeat about the future of the global economy.

Risk sentiment has waxed and waned in the past few weeks after successive quantitative easing programmes from the world's biggest banks supported optimism, while weak manufacturing activity has sapped investors' confidence.

Speizer said the US Federal Reserve's asset-purchase programme is starting to show real improvement in the money supply for the world's biggest economy, though efforts from other central banks haven't been as successful.

With little hard economic data on the horizon next week, investors will focus on whether Spain formally seeks a bail-out from its euro-zone partners, and whether Greece can secure the next tranche of its 130 billion euro rescue fund. The yield on Greece's benchmark 10-year government bond fell 1.2 basis points to 20.5 percent, and the yield on Spain's equivalent bond fell 3.7 basis points to 5.79 percent.

The kiwi dollar rose to 63.88 euro cents from 63.39 cents yesterday and gained to 51.05 British pence from 50.88 pence. The currency rose to 64.86 Japanese yen from 64.39 yen and increased to 79.24 Australian cents from 79.17 cents.

(BusinessDesk)

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