The Australian dollar appears to be following the rise of the Euro as it opened higher today.

The local currency was trading at $US 93.69 cents which is higher than Thursday's close of $US 93.55 cents. It has traded between $US 93.30 cents and $US 93.95 cents since 1700 hours AEST.

The Australia dollar can buy the British pound at $AU 1.66, the Euro at $AU 1.39, and the Canadian dollar at $AU 1.03. It could be exchanged with a unit of the Chinese Yuan for $AU 0.15 cents, the Hong Kong dollar for $AU 0.13 cents, and the Japanese Yen for 0.01 cent.

The New Zealand Kiwi is worth $AU 0.77 cents. Against the Singapore dollar, the local unit is equivalent to $AU 0.79 cents.

Trading director Mike Hollows of the United Kingdom's HiFX said the Australian dollar is “consolidating” as it was “just following the euro and very much part of the weaker US dollar story at the moment.”

The euro went up against the US dollar on Wednesday. It rose from $US 1.3009 to $US1.3075. Mixed economic data out of the US, however, was not enough to guide equities during the offshore session.

Hollows predicted the dollar would gain but warned that “renewed US quantitative easing and general trends are certainly pushing the US dollar lower.”