WELLINGTON (Dow Jones)--The New Zealand dollar was steady late Thursday coming off a one-month high earlier in the session, pulled down by the weakening euro and Australian dollar. While the Kiwi had risen as high as US$0.7002, its strongest since May 18, ANZ Bank senior dealer Alex Sinton said it lacked the conviction to break new ground. Stonebridge Group Associate Director Graham Parlance said the currency looked "tippy," and was likely to retreat to the middle of its recent US$0.6600-US$0.7000 range having met stiff resistance at the session peak. "We ripped from one side of the daily Bollinger band to the other in five days, which is not normally the start of anything further," he said, referring to a technical trading tool named after trader John Bollinger. He said concern about European sovereign risk continues to bubble in the background. "It's still a risk on, risk off game." Parlance added that another interest rate hike by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to back its June 10 increase was nearly fully priced into the Kiwi. "It's almost totally certain that they (RBNZ) will go again with the bar somewhat lower for the second hike than the first." ASB Bank became the first bank to raise interest rates following the RBNZ's 25 basis-point hike on June 10, lifting its key variable rate by the same amount to 6.0%. BIZ Bank foreign exchange strategist Mike Jones said global equity markets and investor sentiment remain the major drivers for the New Zealand dollar. Yields closed slightly lower in the debt market. A Wellington trader said there was receiving interest into the close in the 10-year swaps. A NZ$100 million government bond tender was well bid with a bid-to-cover ratio of around three times. The trader said there was "lazy buying interest in the bonds on the close after the tender but the Kiwi market's been pretty dead today." -By Simon Louisson, Dow Jones Newswire; 64-4-471-5990; simon.louisson@dowjones.com

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