5 Aug 2014

NZ dollar little changed, shares up

5:46 pm on 5 August 2014

The New Zealand dollar is little changed against the currencies of the country's major trading partners.

Bancorp Treasury Services senior client advisor Peter Cavanaugh said investors were awaiting some key pieces of information, including the results of Tuesday night's global dairy trade auction to see whether dairy prices have continued to fall.

He said unemployment data is due out on Wednesday which could influence the Reserve Bank's September monetary policy statements.

Mr Cavanaugh said there is the Australian unemployment data, a European Central Bank and Bank of England meeting on Thursday and then Bank of Japan on Friday.

At about 5pm, the kiwi was trading at 85.2 US cents, 91.24 Australian cents, 50.51 British pence, 0.6349 euro, 87.36 yen and 5.26 renminbi.

Shares rise

New Zealand shares rose on Tuesday, the benchmark Top 50 Index gaining 13 points to 5104.

Harbour Asset Management portfolio manager Craig Stent said although the index ended higher, the market was mixed.

He said Briscoes had indicated their trading and sales trading for the first half was up 6.5 percent from last year and that was solid growth in both Rebel Sport and the homeware part of Briscoes.

Briscoe Group shares gained 9 cents to $2.80 and Kathmandu shares rose 1 cent to $3.43.

Last week, the outdoor clothing retailer said its annual results wouldn't be as bad as it had previously warned, thanks to a cold July which sent shoppers flocking into its stores.

Metlifecare shares fell 7 cents to $4.27.

A2 Milk edged up 1 cent to 64 cents.