NZ dollar falls briefly on RBNZ statement, rebounds

WELLINGTON: The New Zealand dollar briefly slipped to a session low on Friday, but quickly recouped its losses amid market speculation that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand had warned against strength in the domestic currency.

The kiwi fell roughly half a cent to $0.7878, before recovering to around $0.7930 when market participants acknowledged that an announcement on changes to the RBNZ's currency basket did not contain a statement on currency strength.

"The Reserve Bank updated their trade-weighted (TWI) announcement," said a trader in Auckland. "They meant to just update the TWI statement, and nothing else. It was stuff that was previously on the website (which were picked up by media).