International Markets

The international markets continued to remain volatile this week. The dollar fell across the board on Thursday as a rise in share markets on the back of strong US economic data helped to cool extreme risk aversion. The yen suffered against its major rivals as the Japanese currency, which is perceived to be low risk due to its low yield, also took a hit from improving risk appetite. Speculation that there would be a strong reading of US jobs data due on Friday prompted demand for riskier currencies, pushing the Australian and New Zealand dollars higher and supporting even the euro, which has been plagued by euro zone debt problems. Stock markets around the world have been stabilizing after deep losses last month on concerns about Greece's debt woes. European shares rose roughly 2 percent, pulling further away from a nine-month low hit last week. Investors took heart from US data released on Wednesday, which showed surprisingly strong pending home sales for April and a jump in May auto sales. Gains in the euro and other currencies, including the Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar, which each rallied 1 percent versus their US counterpart, pushed the US dollar index down 0.3 percent to 86.555. Despite its broad losses, the dollar edged up 0.5 percent against the yen, its strongest in roughly two weeks. The yen came under general selling pressure, helping to push the euro 1 percent higher to 114.17 yen. In addition to risk demand, traders also took speculation that Japan's next prime minister would take a tougher stance in fighting the yen's strength as an opportunity to trim long positions in the yen, market participants said.

Local Money Market

The call money rates remained stable this week. Most deals traded around 4-5%.

Local Market FX

USD/BDT lost its bullish momentum this week, and rates stabilized slightly lower.

- Standard Chartered Bank