The Australian dollar rose to an 18-year peak for the fifth straight session on Tuesday, but failed to keep pace with the higher-yielding kiwi on bets New Zealand's central bank will raise interest rates this week.
The Aussie reached $0.8863, a gain of only 0.4 percent in less than 24 hours, compared with a striking 1.3 percent gain in the kiwi dollar to a 22-year high of $0.8110.
"The Aussie is extremely hesitant about following the kiwi, mainly because the yield pick-up story hasn't been one which the Aussie's been very famous for," said Peter Pontikis, treasury strategist at Suncorp. The Aussie dollar was quoted at $0.8844/46, compared with $0.8824/29 here late on Monday, according to Reuters data. Its session low was $0.8826.