NZ dollar static as risk appetite wanes THE New Zealand dollar was little changed as concerns about emerging markets eroded investors' appetite for risky assets after Argentina devalued the peso and Turkey's lira plunged when its central bank intervened in foreign exchange markets. The kiwi traded at 82.88 US cents at 8am from 82.84 cents on Thursday. The trade-weighted index dropped to 78.43 from 78.61. Argentina's peso slumped 14 per cent after policy makers stopped buying foreign currency to prop up the currency in a bid preserve the central bank's reserves. Turkey's lira weakened 1.6 per cent after the nation's central bank in a bid to shore up the currency. That raised fears about the strength of emerging economies, which were already on the back foot after a weaker than expected Chinese manufacturing report. "It's been a while since we've had an old-fashioned risk-off day and that's what this is," said Sam Tuck, senior FX strategist at ANZ New Zealand. Mr Tuck said the fears over emerging markets weighed more heavily on the Australian dollar than the kiwi, which rose to 94.59 Australian cents from 94.03 cents. Investors will note the Reserve Bank's December credit card spending figures which are releaased on Friday. The local currency fell to 60.54 euro cents from 61.06 cents after better than expected European manufacturing figures bolstered confidence in the eurozone's economy. The kiwi fell to 85.48 yen from 86.37 yen and slipped to 49.85 British pence from 49.93 pence.