Aust dollar opens higher April 11, 2013 - 7:37AM The Australian dollar has opened higher, as a rally on global equity markets pushed the currency above 105 US cents. At 0700 AEST on Thursday, the Australian dollar was trading at 105.43 US cents, up from Wednesday's local close of 105.09 US cents. The local currency reached 105.51 US cents during the Wall Street session, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P500 posted fresh highs. "Equities were strong across the board," ASB Institutional head of institutional FX sales Tim Kelleher said. It is hard to see a reason why it is going to sell off unless we see some sort of turnaround in that. It's just a continuation of the pattern we have seen for the last four or five days. The Australian dollar also extended gains against the Japanese yen and at 0700 AEDT was at 105.19 yen, up from Wednesday's close of 104.17 yen. Mr Kelleher said there was little of note in the minutes of the US Federal Open Market Committee, which showed members of the US central bank's monetary policy setting body continued to debate when to reduce its bond purchasing program. The focus for markets during the local trading day was expected to be on the March jobs figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics due out at 1130 AEDT. "It's been quite a volatile number," Mr Kelleher said.