Mubasher: Initial official reading indicated that US retailers saw a month-on-month sales growth in March, compared with the decline in the unrevised estimates for February.

Retail and food services sales reached a total of $514.1 billion last March, rising by 1.6% from a revised $506.1 billion in the preceding month, along with an annual gain of 3.6%, the US Census Bureau reported on Thursday.

This marked the strongest sales growth in a year and a half.

Sales of new cars and trucks posted the biggest gain, climbing 3.1%, leading to a sales jump at auto dealers.

The change in US sales volume between January and February was unrevised at 0.2%.

In addition, over the first quarter of this year, sales total sales climbed 2.9% year-on-year.

This was the latest in a slew of official data indicating a firmer economy.

By 12:54 pm GMT, the US dollar index climbed 0.37% to 97.3690.