By Swati Pandey and Charlotte Greenfield
SYDNEY/WELLINGTON, March 2 (Reuters) - The Australian dollar held its own on Thursday, despite the greenback hitting a 7-week high elsewhere, as optimism over global growth underpinned equities and commodity prices.
The Australian dollar AUD=D4 stood at $0.7658, down a slight 0.2 percent.
It traded in a $0.7605/0.7731 range for all of February, ending the month 0.9 percent higher even as the U.S. dollar index .DXY climbed 1.6 percent in the period.
The Aussie also took in its stride domestic data showing a smaller-than-expected trade surplus of A$1.3 billion in January.
Exports fell 3 percent while imports rebounded sharply, though the quarterly current account might still edge into the black for the first time since the mid-1970s. L3N1GE6FC
More important were Wednesday's figures showing the economy turned around in the fourth quarter to extend its 25 years of uninterrupted expansion. also showed China's factory activity expanded at a fast pace in February, likely underpinning demand from Australia's No.1 trading partner. data with the higher-than-expected GDP, along with buoyant China PMI data has lent support to the AUD," said Stephen Innes, senior trader at OANDA.
"Certainly, the AUD should remain firm on the crosses, which are still a favoured way for dealers to express their bullish Australia bias," Innes added.
The Aussie stood near 2-week highs on the yen AUDJPY=R and a 1-1/2 month peak on the pound GBPAUD=R . It rose to its highest in 7-1/2 months against its New Zealand counterpart AUDNZD=R .
The New Zealand dollar NZD=D4 stood at $0.7141, not far from a six-week low of $0.7100 touched as the greenback rose on speculation the U.S. Federal Reserve would lift rates as early as this month.
New York Fed President William Dudley, a permanent voter on the U.S. central bank's open market committee and close ally of chair Janet Yellen, said the case for tightening monetary policy "has become a lot more compelling".
A Reserve Bank of New Zealand speech briefly sent the Kiwi as high as $0.7166, but it quickly retraced to trade around $0.7141.
Governor Graeme Wheeler said that risks of any future rate changes were evenly balanced but that U.S. Trump's protectionism was a key risk to the local economy. Zealand government bonds 0#NZTSY= eased, sending yields 3 basis points higher at the long end of the curve.
Australian government bond futures were mixed, with the three-year bond contract YTTc1 unchanged at 97.95. The 10-year contract YTCc1 was down half a tick at 97.1650. (Editing by Kim Coghill)