The Australian dollar continued to rise overnight, climbing to another fresh two-year high of 97.3 US cents as it consolidated recent strong gains.

And for the first time in six years, it was on equal footing with the Canadian dollar, widely referred to as the loonie because of the imprint of a loon on the dollar coin.

The Aussie dollar was fractionally more valuable than the Canadian currency briefly overnight and this morning was fractionally lower. It is the first time the two currencies have been one-for-one since 2004.

The Australian dollar broke through the 97-US-cent mark yesterday afternoon and touched the 97.3 mark again in evening trade. This morning it was buying 96.88 US cents and about midday east-coast time it was buying 96.8 US cents after taking a drop on the release of housing approvals data that were worse than had been expected.