The Australian and New Zealand dollars edged up against their US counterpart on Thursday and held close to multi-month highs on the yen, following robust data at home and in China. The Aussie rose to $1.0760, from $1.0716 in New York, but was still some way off a seven-month high of $1.0857 set overnight. Against the yen, the Aussie held at 87.08, not far from Wednesday's peak of 87.53.
It came off early lows after China's official PMI rose to 51 in February, its highest since September, marginally beating forecasts of 50.7. The New Zealand dollar rose 0.2 percent on the day to $0.8355, but remained well short of Wednesday's six-month high of $0.8470.