Dollar closed at 64.7900 against its opening of 65.0000. Dollar ended little changed as overseas fund outflows from local stocks offsets selling by exporters and remittances inflows. Renewed worries regarding North Korea are weighing the risk appetite. Asian markets retreated after the South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported fresh threats from North Korea after Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said late Thursday in New York that the country may consider a nuclear test of "unprecedented scale" in the Pacific Ocean. Also, the Asian markets digested the prospect of an additional rate hike this year. Federal Reserve, on Wednesday left interest rates unchanged following a two-day policy meeting, but signalled that a further rise in short-term borrowing costs was still possible this year.
On the US economic front, first-time claims for US unemployment benefits unexpectedly decreased in the week ended Sep 16th, reported the Labour Department on Thursday. The report said initial jobless claims fell to 259,000, a decrease of 23,000 from the previous week's revised level of 282,000. A report released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia on Thursday showed an unexpected improvement in regional manufacturing conditions in the month of September. The Philly Fed said its index for current manufacturing activity rose to 23.8 in September from 18.9 in August.
India’s government is considering a plan to loosen its fiscal deficit target to enable it to spend up to 500 billion rupees ($7.7 billion) more to halt an economic slowdown, two government officials with direct knowledge of the plan said on Thursday.
Sensex provisionally ends down 455 points with 28 components in the red.
INTERNATIONAL
Asian stocks fell and the Japanese yen and Swiss franc gained on the mooted possibility of North Korea conducting another hydrogen bomb test, this time in the Pacific Ocean.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un blasted U.S. President Donald Trump as “mentally deranged” on Friday and vowed to make him pay dearly for threatening to destroy his country, hours after Trump ordered fresh sanctions over Pyongyang’s weapons programmes.
The Yen gained sharply in Asia as investors they digested an alarming report that North Korea could test a nuclear weapon over the Pacific Ocean with other attention onfixed on a policy speech on Brexit later in the day.
Oil prices held steady in early Asian trade as the market waited to see whether major oil producers would extend supply cuts beyond March at a meeting in Vienna later in the day.
Gold edged up from a four-week low on Friday as the latest twist in tensions between the United States and North Korea prompted investors to seek out the safe-haven asset.