Canada dollar hits near 30-year high vs U.S. dollar

LONDON (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar hit a near three-decade high versus the U.S. currency for a second session on Monday, boosted by a recent run of strong data and continued merger and acquisition interest in Canada's firms.

By 0724 GMT, the U.S. dollar was down a third of a percent at C$1.0851 CAD=, at levels not seen for 29-1/2 years.

"There has been a batch of much stronger than expected data and there's a view that the Bank of Canada is turning more hawkish. There has also been strong M&A flow into Canada," said Kamal Sharma, currency strategist at Bank of America.

Over the weekend, Canada's finance minister Jim Flaherty said the strong currency was a challenge for manufacturers and their key to coping with it is to be more productive.