20 Jan 2014

Dollar weaker ahead of CPI release

7:25 pm on 20 January 2014

The New Zealand dollar is slightly weaker against the currencies of all our major trading partners ahead of the release of key inflation figures.

ANZ Bank senior foreign exchange strategist Sam Tuck said a magnitude 6.2 earthquake at Eketahuna, in the Tararua District, just before 4pm prompted some kneejerk selling. The quake was felt from and Auckland to Invercargill.

Consumer Price Index data being released on Tuesday would set the direction for the New Zealand dollar in the coming week, with a positive inflation surprise possibly reversing some of the weak kiwi-US trend, he said.

Just after 5pm, the New Zealand dollar was buying: 82.43 US cents, 93.9 Australian cents, 50.22 pence, 0.6094 euro and 85.71 yen.

Shares little changed

The share market was little changed, the NZX Top 50 index easing 3 points to 4890.

Forsyth Barr investment adviser Andrew Davis said some of the stocks which had been flying high made further gains on Monday.

That included Wynyard Group, which announced a partnership agreement with Britain-based Arquebus Solutions to produce software to help law enforcement agencies track firearms crime. That announcement followed a recent contract win in the United Arab Emirates, and helped boost the company's shares 34 cents to $2.84.

SLI Systems was also up strongly following its announcement last week that one billion search queries had been performed on its software during December, up 50% on the previous year.

SLI Systems shares on Monday gained 18 cents to $2.57, Burgerfuel climbed 10 cents to $3.10 and Hallenstein rose 9 cents to $3.25.