FOREX-Dollar gains broadly as risk sentiment subdued; data eyed

* Graphic: World FX rates in 2019 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh

LONDON, April 20 (Reuters) - The dollar gained broadly
against its rivals on Monday as concerns about global growth
boosted the safe-haven appeal of the greenback and weighed on
risk-oriented currencies such as the Australian dollar.
Risk appetite was broadly on the back foot in the Asian
session as data showed Japanese exports falling by its biggest
margin in nearly four years and as oil prices weakened to a
21-year, reflecting a widening evaporation in global demand.
O/R
Against a basket of its rivals =USD , the greenback rose
0.2% to 99.90 and edged closer towards a three-year high of near
103 hit last month.
"There is still a degree of safe haven support and a level
of demand for U.S. dollar that is going to transcend whether or
not we are in risk-on or risk-off mode," said Ray Attrill, head
of FX at National Australia Bank in Sydney.
The dollar gained about 0.1% on the euro and pound and 0.2%
on the Japanese yen. It last bought 107.80 yen JPY=EBS and
traded at $1.2478 per pound GBP= and $1.0870 per euro EUR=EBS .
The dollar's gains came at a time when latest positioning
data revealed that investors ramped up their short positions on
the greenback.
The value of the net short dollar position, derived from net
positions of International Monetary Market speculators in the
yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Canadian and
Australian dollars, rose to $12.59 billion in the week ended
April 14, from $10.5 billion the previous week. Elsewhere, the New Zealand dollar NZD=D3 was the only one
to hold its own against the greenback, rising 0.3% to $0.6044
after the nation said it will lower its alert level one notch
next Monday - allowing some businesses to resume - and review
that stance on May 1. New Zealand, which has recorded just 12 deaths from
COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus,
remains a rare outlier with other Western and Asian countries
still under lockdown.
The economic impact of the enforced lockdown will be evident
from data later this week where flash PMI data will be released.
Composite euro zone PMIs, comprising services and
manufacturing, plummeted last month to a record low of 29.7
versus February's 51.6 - the biggest monthly drop since the
survey began in July 1998.