Interest on Ringgit pushes it higher
Filed Under (Money Market) by Fred Chan on 25-03-2011
Tagged Under : Malaysia, ringgit
THE ringgit closed higher against the US dollar yesterday (12 March 2009) as the greenback traded lower globally, dealers said.
They said the US dollar slipped as investors believed its recent gains had reached the limit.
“Weaker performance of the greenback globally spurred buying interest for the local unit,” one of the dealers said.
At 5pm, the ringgit rose against the greenback at 3.6900/6950 from3.6990/7020 on Wednesday.
The local unit was lower against the Singapore dollar at 2.4059/4116 from2.3998/4042 on Wednesday and it also weakened against the Japanese yen at3.8510/8574 from 3.7565/7610 previously.
Against the British pound, the ringgit was stronger at 5.0712/0795 from 5.0802/0865 on Wednesday but it was weaker against the euro at 4.7081/7156 from4.6866/6927 previously.
THE three-month Kuala Lumpur Inter-Bank Offered Rate (KLIBOR) futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives ended lower yesterday.
Contract month March 2009, September 2009 and December 2009 declined two ticks each to 97.89, 98.08 and 98.08 respectively while March 2010 lost 15 ticks to 97.81.
Turnover was lower at 1,025 lots from 3,090 lots on Wednesday while open interests was higher at 46,088 contracts from 45,508 contracts on Wednesday.
On the cash market, the underlying three-month KLIBOR remained at 2.12 per cent.
SHORT-term rates closed steady yesterday with Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) intervening in the money market to absorb surplus funds, dealers said.
The total liquidity surplus in the conventional system declined to RM8.9 billion from an earlier estimate of RM16.1 billion.
For Islamic funds, the total liquidity surplus was reduced to RM4.4 billion from an earlier estimate of RM7.5 billion.
The central bank issued a late conventional tender for RM8.8 billion for one day and an Al-Wadiah tender for RM4.4 billion, also for one day.
The five-year Malaysian Government Securities futures were untraded. – Bernama
