By Ron Harui and Ruby Madren-Britton Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The Australian and New Zealand dollars fell and posted their first weekly losses against the U.S. currency in November as global investors sold shares to reduce the chance of losses before year-end. “Reduced risk appetite and the more cautious mood across global equity markets are expected to limit gains in growth- sensitive currencies like the Australian and New Zealand dollars,” said Mike Jones, a currency strategist at Bank of New Zealand Ltd. in Wellington. Australia’s dollar fell 0.5 percent to 91.38 U.S. cents at 1:55 p.m. in New York, from 91.86 cents yesterday. It dropped to 90.61 cents, the lowest level since Nov. 5. It lost 2.1 percent this week. The currency was at 81.25 yen, compared with 81.72. It reached 80.63, the weakest level since Nov. 3. New Zealand’s dollar declined 1.1 percent to 72.33 U.S. cents, extending its drop this week to 2.7 percent. The kiwi was at 64.30 yen, compared with 65.04 yen. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 1.4 percent and was headed for its first weekly decline since October. “Reduced global risk appetite and a broad-based strengthening in the U.S. dollar has knocked some of the wind out of the Australian dollar,” National Australia Bank Ltd. analysts said in a note to clients. “An ongoing reassessment of the pace of expected tightening from the RBA has also weighed on the Australian dollar over the past few days.” Australia’s currency has risen 51 percent in the past 12 months against the greenback as the Reserve Bank of Australia became the first policy maker to increase borrowing costs twice this year. The chance of an RBA interest-rate increase in December stood at 64 percent today, down from 83 percent odds a week earlier, according to a Credit Suisse Group AG index based on swaps trading. Aussie Bonds Australian government bonds rose. The yield on the 10-year note fell two basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 5.39 percent, and touched the lowest since Oct. 14, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The price of the 5.25 percent security due in March 2019 climbed 0.122, or A$1.22 per A$1,000 face amount, to 98.953. New Zealand’s two-year swap rate, a fixed payment made to receive floating rates, which is sensitive to interest-rate expectations, increased two basis points to 4.34 percent. To contact the reporters on this story: Ron Harui in Singapore at rharui@bloomberg.net; Ruby Madren-Britton in New York at rmadrenbritt@bloomberg.net

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