Wellington, Sept 9 NZPA - The New Zealand dollar gained strength overnight after risk appetite made a slight comeback as fears about the strength of European banks eased.

Westpac senior currency strategist Imre Speizer said European concerns receded and risk currencies such as the NZ dollar benefited, while the US dollar and the yen fell.

At 8am, the NZ dollar was buying US72.15c from US71.70 at 5pm yesterday.

It could go higher against the US dollar with support from the Australian dollar as its employment report is due today.

Mr Speizer said the market expects the unemployment rate to fall to 5.2 percent and employment to have increased by 25,000 jobs, but reminds the report posed significant event risk.

The aussie was at US91.66c at 8am today from US91.25c at 5pm yesterday.

Though the aussie continued to recover from a dip prompted by the new Labor minority government announcement Tuesday, it could lose steam if its employment numbers disappointed, also affecting the kiwi.

The NZ dollar was buying A78.67c at 8am from A78.56c at 5pm yesterday.

Against an underperforming safe-have yen, the kiwi was buying 60.53 this morning, compared to 59.82 yesterday afternoon.

It was also stronger against the euro, at 0.5674 at 8am from 0.5641 at 5pm yesterday.

The trade weighted index rose to 67.14 from 66.73.