The Australian and New Zealand dollars surged on Thursday, after EU leaders reached a deal with private banks and insurers to accept a 50 percent loss on their Greek debt holdings, part of a plan to tackle the region's debt crisis. The announcement sparked a relief rally across riskier assets with the euro bouncing 0.6 percent.
The Aussie jumped 0.9 percent to $1.0491, while the New Zealand dollar gained more than a cent to $0.8048, from $0.7936 in New York. The Aussie outperformed the kiwi, rising to NZ$1.3017, near this week's four-month high of NZ$1.3125.