Money Market
Overnight money market was stable. The call money rate was range bound throughout the week and most of the deals ranged between 7.25-7.50 percent.

In the Treasury bill auction held on Sunday, bid for BDT 8,000.00 was accepted compared to BDT 7,500.00 last week. Weighted average yield rose slightly for all categories of T-bills sold on the day.

International FX Market
This week saw the yen hit a record low against the euro. The Canadian dollar also hit a 30 year high against the US dollar. The US dollar however gained ground on most of it rivals backed by strong economic data which quelled the expectation of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut.

US Dollar
The US dollar recovered against its major rivals, especially the euro and the sterling. The rise was backed by strong consumer confidence on the economy and defused expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rate later in the year. The Fed rate stands at 5.25 percent, and slow economic growth has been putting pressure to cut the interest rate.

Euro
The euro failed to gain grounds against the US dollar despite expectation that the European Central Bank will raise interest rates to 4 percent in June, which has been factored in. The euro also came under pressure from slightly below-forecast German Ifo business sentiment data.

Yen
The yen, which briefly rose against all the currencies the week before, fell across the board this week, hitting a record low of 163.94 against the euro. The rise of yen in the earlier week was attributed to the fact that China has announced that it would allow the yuan to rise and fall 0.5 against the dollar each day, widening the band from 0.3 percent. However, investors took heart form the fact that the Asian equity markets were not affected by this news, and took it as a green signal to gear up their carry trades.

- Standard Chartered Bank