WELLINGTON (Dow Jones)--The New Zealand dollar was largely unchanged late Wednesday, still weighed by ongoing concerns Ireland's sovereign debt crisis would spread to other euro-zone nations. "A continuation of euro-zone weakness is weighing on risk sentiment," said ANZ Foreign Exchange Manager Murray Hindley. Also weighing on the market was Standard & Poor's move last week to lower its outlook on New Zealand's foreign currency credit rating to negative from stable, as well as the domestic economy's tepid recovery, Hindley said. He noted that the kiwi did gain slightly against Australian dollar on news that Australia's economy grew at a slower pace than forecast in the third quarter as a soaring currency weighed on exports. The commodity-rich economy's average measure of gross domestic product, or GDP, rose 0.2% in the third quarter from the previous three months, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. Economists had expected GDP to rise 0.4% in the quarter. Government bonds were largely unchanged while swap rates pushed slightly lower at the long end. A local bond trader said there was very little action in the market and that investors were keenly watching Thursday's government tender of NZ$600 million of bonds.

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