April 19 - April 23, 2009

Standard Chartered Bank

United States (US) dollar remained steady against Bangladeshi taka throughout the week. The market was active and there was ample liquidity in the week.

Local money market

The call money rate was stable.

International market continued to remain volatile in the week. Uncertainty over European Central Bank's (ECB) policy weighed heavily on euro.

However, improvements in the German ZEW sentiment index and euro zone PMI helped the euro to rebound. The latest provisional euro zone purchasing managers' surveys for April showed that the indices for both the services and manufacturing sectors improved much more than the expectation, suggesting that the region's deep recession was no longer worsening.

The readings were their highest in six months, but the PMI indices remained well below the 50 level that divided the growth from contraction.

Other currencies viewed as higher risk such as sterling and Australian dollar also recovered against dollar Thursday. Sentiment was helped by gains in US stock futures, while European equities were steady.

Analysts said trade was tentative, however, with ongoing concerns about the global economy and the upcoming results of 'stress' tests on US banks putting a lid on any rebound in riskier assets.