Business

Dairy auction affects dollar, market gains

18:18 pm on 19 November 2014

The New Zealand dollar lost about two-thirds of a US cent today after yet another poor global dairy auction.

The average price for dairy commodities traded in the auction earlier today fell by more than 3 percent to $US2561 - its lowest point in five years.

The senior foreign exchange strategist at ANZ, Sam Tuck, said the market took a dim view of dairy prices continuing to slump.

At 5.20pm today, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 78.68 US cents, 90.75 Australian cents, 50.41 British pence, 0.6287 euro, 92.24 yen and 4.81 renminbi.

Meanwhile, New Zealand shares were up, the benchmark Top 50 Index gaining 17 points to close at 5522. Earlier in the day it reached a fresh record of 5525 points.

The director of wealth management at Murray & Co, Johnny Cochrane, said the market took its lead from Wall Street.

Meridian Energy was up 6 cents to $1.77. 5. Heartland gained 7 cents to $1.08, while Kiwi Property Income Trust rose 1.5 cents to $1.22. A2 Milk fell 3 cents to 62 cents.