17 Oct 2014

NZ shares up but kiwi down against US

7:27 pm on 17 October 2014

New Zealand shares rose today, with the benchmark Top 50 Index gaining 15 points, or nearly a third of a percent, to 5147.

Devon Funds portfolio manager Nick Dravitzki said the sharemarket was subdued after a sell-off of global equities rocked it earlier in the week.

SkyCity shares rose 10 cents to $3.57, while Skellerup shares lost 2 cents to $1.43.

NZ dollar falls half a US cent

The New Zealand dollar fell nearly half a US cent today.

Bank of New Zealand currency strategist Raiko Shareef said it was a comparatively quiet day for the kiwi.

"But there was a brief flurry of activity when the Reserve Bank accidentally rereleased the very harsh words it had against the New Zealand dollar back in September, which at that point caused a very sharp sell-off."

Mr Shareef said the markets thought it was a new statement and the New Zealand dollar lost nearly 1 percent in a very short space of time before the Reserve Bank came out and said it had made a mistake.

At about 5pm on Friday, the kiwi was trading at 79.28 US cents, 90.61 Australian cents, 49.29 British pence, 0.6192 euro, 84.25 yen and 4.86 renminbi.