New Zealand bonds close higher on subdued dairy supply outlook at overnight GDT price auction; shrugs-off improvement in milk prices

New Zealand government bonds closed higher Wednesday, despite an improvement in the global dairy prices at the country’s latest GlobalDairyTrade Price auction held overnight. Elsewise, trading remained sideways as the country returned from a long New Year holiday today.

At the time of closing, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to its price, fell 1 basis point to 2.80 percent, the yield on 20-year also slipped by a basis point to 3.29 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year too ended 1 basis point lower at 1.95 percent.

The Global Dairy Trade Price Index (GDT) gained 2.2 percent at the first auction of the year, after the world’s biggest dairy processor, Fonterra, dropped its forecast for NZ milk collection last week for the second time in as many months. The average selling price was of NZD3,124 per tonne, with prices for whole milk powder - the most widely traded product - posting the strongest gain, 4.2 percent.

Auckland-based Fonterra revised its forecast for its New Zealand milk collection for the current 2017-18 season to 1480 million kilograms of milk solids, down 3 percent from the 1525 million kgMS it collected in the 2016-17 season, it said.

Meanwhile, the NZX 50 index closed 0.32 percent higher at 8,424.91, while at 05:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly NZD Strength Index remained neutral at -59.24 (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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