Investing.com - The Australian and New Zealand dollars rose to multi-month highs against their U.S. counterpart on Thursday, as market sentiment was boosted by hopes British voters will chose to remain in the European Union at today’s historic referendum.
AUD/USD gained 0.47% to a nine-month high of 0.7531.
Sentiment strengthened after polls by ComRes, conducted for the Daily Mail newspaper and ITV (LON:ITV) television, and by YouGov for The Times newspaper in London, showed a last-minute rise in support for Britain to remain in the EU.
The vote on a potential Brexit was set to take place between 0600-2100 GMT on Thursday, with results expected on Friday morning.
NZD/USD advanced 0.46% to trade at a 12-month high of 0.7196.
A rise in oil prices also helped the commodity-currencies on Thursday. Crude rebounded from losses posted the previous session, after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a smaller than expected fall in U.S. stocks last week.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.14% at 94.03.