Dollar closed at 65.2025 against its opening of 65.3000. Dollar ended down for the second-straight day Friday on selling by exporters amid likely overseas funds inflow into local stocks. "FII inflows into local equities and selling by foreign banks mostly for exporters supported the rupee,".Dollar falls after opening higher on selling by exporters, foreign banks, however, oil importers dollar demand and firm greenback limited the fall. The strength in the dollar and rise in oil prices will keep the pair attracted to buyers on any dips. Crude oil price held three-year high levels as investors gauged political risks in Middle East against higher production in other parts of the world. Brent, the global benchmark, fell 4 cents, or 0.1%, to $72.02 a barrel. Dollar demand stabilised after the release of better than expected US initial jobless claims raising optimism over the health of the economy. Initial jobless claims in the US fell 9,000 to 233,000 in the week to Apr 7, from the 242,000 in the previous week, beating expectations of a fall to 230,000.
Also, optimism over US Federal Reserve's March monetary policy meeting minutes which showed policymakers had great confidence of US inflation hitting their 2% target. Adding to this, some respite in geo-political tension after US President Donald Trump over attack on Syria through a tweet on Twitter provided support to the greenback. Local stocks opened flat Friday tracking Asian shares after weak China trade data amid improved investor sentiments on easing geopolitical concerns.
Sensex provisionally ended 84 points higher with 18 components in the green.
INTERNATIONAL
Asian equities continued to rise in afternoon trade on Friday after U.S. president , but Mainland Chinese markets underperformed its regional peers as data on Friday showed the country’s exports in March unexpectedly fell.
Oil prices edged lower on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump tempered remarks warning of an imminent missile attack on Syria, but were still set for their biggest weekly gains in more than 8 months.
India’s retail inflation eased to a five-month low in March, but remained above the Reserve Bank of India’s medium-term target, supporting views that monetary policy is likely to remain unchanged at the next review in early June.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the creation of a task force to study the U.S. Postal Service and its financial difficulties, after recently claiming without evidence that deliveries for Amazon.com Inc were costing the service money.