The Australian dollar is back below 94 US cents following a fall in global equity markets.

At 1200 AEST on Friday, the local currency was trading at 93.77 US cents, down from 94.38 cents on Thursday.

Australian and Asian stock markets opened lower on Friday following a sharp slide on Wall Street overnight, driven by a plunge in tech stocks.

That impacted on risk appetite, dragging the Australian dollar lower, National Australia Bank global co-head of FX strategy Ray Attrill said.

“There was a bit of a meltdown in US stocks, led by the tech sector, and that spilled over into Asian stocks this morning, which sort of furthered the risk-off mentality,” Mr Attrill said.

“Risk appetite has been relatively constructive in recent weeks but that’s gone into quite a rapid reverse.

“The Australian dollar has just been caught amid this quite rapid deterioration.”

Meanwhile, Australian bond futures prices were higher.

At 1200 AEST on Friday, the June 2014 10-year bond futures contract was trading at 95.975 (implying a yield of 4.025 per cent), up from 95.940 (4.060 per cent).

The June 2014 three-year bond futures contract was at 96.960 (3.040 per cent), up from 96.940 (3.060 per cent).