The Australian dollar is trading slightly higher today following on from the strong finish of the local sharemarket.
At 7.10pm (AEDT) the Aussie dollar is trading at US81.37 cents up from US81.20 cents last week.
The ASX 200 rose 1.5 per cent to close at 5,474 boosted by strong gains in the resource sector and a slight rise in the iron ore price to $US66.70 a tonne.
CMC markets analyst Michael McCarthy noted that trading had been volatile amid weak volumes but the market gathered momentum as the day went on,
"The market has gone from strength to strength today and the big surprise is the resources stocks," Mr McCarthy said.
"Although we did see pressure on energy stocks at the open, both Rio and BHP opened in the green and headed high very quickly."
Easy Forex senior dealer Francisco Solar said the Australian dollar benefited from improved risk appetite after the four-day Christmas break.
"There was a positive end to the session which reflected on the Aussie dollar," he said.
"There seems to be a bit of a risk appetite, or risk seeking behavior in what has been a session characterized by no catalyst really so the Aussie in that environment tends to do quite OK."
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