The Australian dollar eased back from one-week highs on profit taking, but tentatively held above 82 US cents on Friday during a see-saw session in which it failed to tackle resistance building around $0.8250.
The local currency fell to $0.8155 early on as investors booked profits on its rise of as much as 7 percent in the past five sessions as appetite for riskier bets began to return after the recent wild swings in financial markets.
It then shot up to its session peak of $0.8244. "Between the 82.50 and 83 cents levels is expected to be a short-term top," said Jim Vrondas, corporate business manager at OzForex. "We're seeing some resistance building up there as the importers line up to sell some more around those levels.
"That's likely to persist for a little longer, although I do think the offshore markets could test it again. They're starting to get a little more confidence back into these higher-yielding currencies and we've seen some return to the carry trade."
The Aussie dollar was quoted at $0.8205/08, compared with $0.8157/62 here late on Thursday, Reuters data showed. It remains well below last month's 18-year peak of $0.8871, reached before the global instability.