New Zealand bonds jump at close as investors shrug-off higher dairy prices at GDT auction

The New Zealand bonds jumped at the time of closing Wednesday as investors have largely shrugged-off the rise in dairy prices at the latest GlobaldairyTrade (GDT) price auction, held late Tuesday.

At the time of closing, the yield on the benchmark 10-year bond, which moves inversely to its price, remained flat at 2.99 percent, the yield on 7-year note slipped 1/2 basis point to 2.87 percent while the yield on short-term 2-year note ended 2-1/2 basis points lower at 1.95 percent.

Prices in the latest Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction, the 14th sale of calendar 2017, rose 0.2 percent, following a 0.4 percent decline at the previous sale with volatility sharply reduced over the past four auctions. There was further uncertainty surrounding Chinese participation at the latest auction and overall Chinese demand will continue to be an important market focus during the remainder of 2017.

New Zealand’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) was unchanged in the June quarter, taking the annual inflation rate down from 2.2 percent to 1.7 percent. This overstates the degree to which inflation has slowed, as it includes volatile items such as fuel prices. But a range of measures of underlying inflation also saw some slowdown.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand’s benchmark S&P/NZX 50 Index closed 0.33 percent higher at  7,732.75 while at 06:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly NZD Strength Index remained neutral at 59.33 (a reading above +75 indicates a bullish trend, while that below -75 a bearish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex

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