India’s financial markets are closed on Friday for a public holiday. Markets will resume on Monday.The benchmark BSE Sensex closed down 0.34 percent at 39,140.28 on Thursday. The broader NSE Nifty ended 0.29 percent lower at 11,752.80.The 10-year benchmark bond yield ended at 7.56 percent on Thursday, while the Indian rupee settled at 69.34 to the dollar.
Japan will invite U.S. President Donald Trump to visit Japan May 25 to 28, its top government spokesman said on Friday.Trump will meet Japan’s new emperor and empress as well as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during his visit, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told.Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Friday there was no change in the government’s stance that it would go ahead with a planned sales tax hike in October.
Oil futures edged up on Thursday as a drop in crude exports from OPEC’s de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, and a draw in U.S. drilling rigs and oil inventories supported prices.Brent crude futures settled at $71.97 a barrel, up 35 cents from their last close and near Wednesday’s five-month high of $72.27. Brent saw a weekly gain of 0.6 percent, marking the fourth consecutive weekly rise for the international benchmark.U.S. energy firms this week reduced the number of oil rigs operating for the first time in three weeks as production growth forecasts from shale, the country’s largest oil fields, continue to shrink.