SYDNEY/WELLINGTON (Reuters) - The Australian dollar hopped higher on the yen on Tuesday after policy tweaks by Bank of Japan were initially taken as less-hawkish than some had feared, though their longer term impact was not entirely clear.
The Aussie dollar firmed modestly to 82.55 yen <AUDJPY=>, from around 82.20, but faces resistance in the 82.90/83.00 zone.
There had been speculation the BoJ might take a step toward tightening its ultra-easy policy, but in the end it made limited changes while adopting a new pledge to keep rates "extremely low" for an extended period of time.
"The Bank of Japan has not changed its policy officially and there is a commitment to keep its easy policy for longer," said Rodrigo Catril, a senior FX analyst at NAB.
He noted questions remained about the bank's commitment to keeping Japanese 10-year yields around zero and how that would work in practice. BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda is due to give a media conference later in the session.
All of which was taken as a mild tonic for risk appetite and helped the Aussie edge up 0.3 percent on its U.S. counterpart to $0.7430 <AUD=D3>. It now faces a formidable chart barrier around $0.7465 which has held firm for the past three weeks.
The kiwi dollar <NZD=D3> was relatively unchanged at $0.6827, having earlier been weighed by disappointing local data.
A survey showed business pessimism deepened to a decade-low in July, extending a trend evident since the centre-left Labour-led government took the helm in October.
A net 44.9 percent of respondents expected the New Zealand economy to deteriorate in the year ahead, compared to 39 percent in the previous month.
Australian data was largely overshadowed but showed mixed readings on the housing sector.
On the positive side approvals to build new homes bounced 6.4 percent in June, easily topping forecasts of a flat outcome and more than making up for softness in May.
Not so bullish was a sharp slowdown in credit for investor home loans, where annual growth hit a record low in June as tighter lending standards and hikes in some mortgage rates sucked the life out of the buy-to-let sector.
"The housing market has cooled from a prices and credit growth perspective, but in terms of construction, which contributes to economic activity, things remain buoyant," said CBA senior economist Gareth Aird.
"The level of dwelling investment will remain elevated in Australia over the next two years," he added. "Fears of a sharp decline in residential activity look overdone and are not supported by the data."
Australian government bond futures were a shade lower, with the three-year bond contract <YTTc1> off 2 ticks at 97.880. The 10-year contract <YTCc1> eased 1.5 ticks to 97.3300.
New Zealand government bond prices also slipped <0#NZTSY=>, nudging yields up 3 basis points along the curve.
(Editing by Sam Holmes)
