The New Zealand dollar strengthened against the other major currencies in the Asian session on Thursday after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand decided to maintain its Official Cash Rate at a record low.

RBNZ governor Graeme Wheeler decided to maintain its Official Cash Rate at a record low of 2.25 percent. That was in line with expectations after the bank had cut the rate by 25 basis points at its March meeting.

The bank revealed that further policy easing is possibly needed to ensure that future average inflation settles near the middle of the target range of 1 to 3 percent.

However, traders bet that a rate cut may be in the offing at the next policy meeting on June 9. Meanwhile, the Asian markets traded higher following the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement overnight, which did not contain any major surprises, and on higher crude oil prices.

Wednesday, the NZ dollar showed mixed trading against its major rivals. While the NZ dollar fell against the U.S. dollar, the yen and the euro, it rose against the Australian dollar.

In the Asian trading, the NZ dollar rose to a 6-day high of 1.6307 against the euro and nearly a 4-week high of 77.35 against the yen, from yesterday's closing quotes of 1.6515 and 76.23, respectively. If the kiwi extends its uptrend, it is likely to find resistance around 1.60 against the euro and 79.00 against the yen.

Against the Australian and U.S. dollars, the kiwi advanced to nearly a 2-month high of 1.0949 and a 1-week high of 0.6941 from yesterday's closing quotes of 1.1065 and 0.6823, respectively. On the upside, 1.07 against the aussie and 0.70 against the greenback are seen as the next resistance levels for the kiwi.

Looking ahead, Nationwide U.K. house price index for April are due to be released in the pre-European session at 2:00 am ET.

German unemployment rate, Eurozone business climate index and economic sentiment index, all for April, are slated for release later in the day.

At 7:00 am ET, Bank of Spain Governor Luis Linde will participate in a conference in tribute to Federico Prades in Madrid.

In the New York session, preliminary German CPI for April, U.S. weekly jobless claims for the week ended April 23 and advance U.S. GDP data for the first quarter are set to be published.

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