The New Zealand dollar has risen along with its Australian counterpart after trade figures from China beat estimates, stoking optimism that demand in the two nations' biggest market isn't wavering.
The kiwi rose to 83.50 US cents from 83.28 US cents at the start of the day and from 83.00 cents on Tuesday.
The trade-weighted index rose to 78.51 from 78.41 at 8am and 78.08 on Tuesday.
China's exports rose 10.6 per cent in January from a year earlier while imports rose 10 per cent, for a trade surplus of $US31.9 billion ($NZ38.3b), the biggest for that month since 2009.
China, the world's second-largest economy, is the biggest buyer of New Zealand's dairy products and wood and the largest market for Australia's mineral resources.
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"More of our milk powder and other things are going to China and better trading there is better for us," said Imre Speizer, senior market strategist at Westpac Banking Corp.
"It's good for the currency."
The kiwi dollar gained early on Wednesday and stocks rose on Wall Street after new Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen signalled no change to the Fed's policy path in her testimony to Congress.
The fed's massive stimulus programme would be wound back in "measured steps", she said. The recovery in the US jobs market was "far from complete".
The New Zealand dollar was little changed at 92.13 Australian cents from 92.09 cents on Tuesday. It rose to 61.20 euro cents from 60.73 cents and to 85.50 yen from 84.78 yen.
