Australia, N.Z. Dollars Rise From Six-Year Lows on Rate Cuts

By Candice Zachariahs

Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The Australian dollar rose by the most since it began trading freely in December 1983 against the yen after central banks cut interest rates to ease a financial crisis. New Zealand's currency also gained.

The South-Pacific currencies strengthened from the lowest levels in six years on speculation the global round of rate cuts gave investors confidence to revisit carry trades, where they borrow in yen and buy the nations' higher-yielding assets. Australian employers hired fewer workers in September as a 17- year economic expansion slowed, a government report showed today.

``If you start to see a wee bit more stability come through in Asian equity markets, the chance of a bit more stability in the Australian dollar is actually quite high,'' said Robert Rennie, chief currency strategist in Sydney at Westpac Banking Corp. ``Central bank easing at some point should begin to have a beneficial impact on risk assets and the markets.''

The Australian dollar climbed 6.3 percent to 69.62 yen as of 4:43 p.m. in Sydney, after dropping as much as 12.5 percent yesterday to 63.75, the lowest since September 2002.

New Zealand's dollar rose 3.4 percent to 61.07 yen from 59.07 yen yesterday, when it fell 7.9 percent.

Against the U.S. dollar, the Australian currency advanced 5.4 percent to 69.40 U.S. cents from 65.85 yesterday. The New Zealand dollar climbed 2.5 percent to 60.87 cents from 59.36.

The number of people employed in Australia rose 2,200 last month after increasing a revised 10,200 in August, the statistics bureau said in Sydney. The median estimate of 21 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for no change. The jobless rate rose to 4.3 percent from 4.1 percent.

Technical Levels

Traders will watch technical levels on the Australian dollar today, said Westpac's Rennie.

The currency closed below 67.15 U.S. cents yesterday, a 61.8 percent retracement from its April 2001 low to a July 2008 high, according to a series of numbers known as the Fibonacci sequence.

The close below that level could ``open up a deeper sell- off and a long-term target to the 2001 lows at 47.75,'' wrote London-based Kevin Edgeley, a technical analyst at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in a research note dated Oct. 8.

The Reserve Bank of Australia reduced borrowing costs by 1 percentage point to 6 percent on Oct. 7 to spur lending, raising speculation other central banks would join to relieve stress in the markets.

The Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of England, Bank of Canada and Sweden's Riksbank each reduced their benchmark rates by half a point yesterday. Switzerland, Taiwan, China and South Korea also reduced borrowing costs.

New Zealand Liquidity

Australia and New Zealand's rate advantage over Japan makes the nations attractive for so-called carry trades. Japan's benchmark rate is 0.5 percent compared with 7.5 percent in New Zealand. The risk in the trades is that fluctuations in exchange-rates may erase profits.

New Zealand's central bank said today it will increase the range of securities it will accept from lenders to help increase liquidity in the banking system.

New Zealand banks have high-quality assets and have held up ``relatively well,'' in the face of volatility in world markets, Governor Alan Bollard said in an e-mailed statement. Still, the bank will temporarily broaden its securities program, he said.

Australian government bonds fell. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note rose 17 basis points to 5.098 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The price of the 5.25 percent security due March 2019 declined 1.363, or A$13.63 per A$1,000 face amount, to 101.212. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

New Zealand's two-year swap rate, a fixed payment made to receive floating rates, dropped to 6.490 percent from 6.505 yesterday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Candice Zachariahs in Sydney at czachariahs2@bloomberg.net