Ringgit depreciates as as stock marts fall

RINGGIT

THE ringgit ended lower against the US dollar yesterday due to losses on stock markets locally and regionally, dealers said.

At 5pm, the ringgit depreciated to 3.4230/4280 against the US dollar from Wednesday's closing of 3.4215/4245.

One of the dealers said that Bank Negara Malaysia's decision to leave interest rates unchanged at two per cent yesterday was also among the factors behind the weakening ringgit.

"Expectation is building up that monetary conditions will remain easy at least until the first half of 2010, reflective of fiscal policy making its way into the real sector of the economy," the dealer said.

The strengthening US dollar also further pressured the ringgit, the dealer said, adding that concern over a global economic recovery was dampening demand for emerging-market assets.

At close, the ringgit was traded mixed against other major currencies.

The local currency rose against the Singapore dollar to 2.4440/4491 from 2.4445/4471 on Wednesday but weakened against the Japanese yen at 3.7744/7803 from 3.7496/7552 previously.

The ringgit declined against the British pound to 5.6209/6305 from 5.6007/6093 on Wednesday but gained against the euro at 5.0472/0556 from 5.0635/0708 previously.

INTERBANK RATES

SHORT-TERM rates were steady at close yesterday after Bank Negara intervened in the money market to absorb surplus funds, dealers said.

Following that, the overnight rate was fixed at 1.92 per cent while the one-week, two-week and three-week rates were at 1.96 per cent, 1.98 per cent and 2.01 per cent, respectively.

The total liquidity in the conventional system declined to RM23.03 billion from an earlier estimate of RM29.57 billion while Islamic funds decreased to RM5.44 billion from an earlier forecast of RM4.89 billion.

Bank Negara conducted four conventional and two Al-Wadiah tenders as well as one repo and one Commodity Murabahah Programme tender, this morning. The central bank later called a conventional tender for RM23 billion for one-day money and an Al-Wadiah tender for RM5.4 billion also for one-day money. - Bernama

KLIBOR

THE three-month Kuala Lumpur Interbank Offered Rates (KLIBOR) futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed higher in thin trading yesterday, dealers said.

At close, only one contract month was traded with March 2010 increasing two ticks to settle at 97.63 with 30 lots traded.

The underlying three-month KLIBOR was fixed at 2.16 per cent.

As for the five-year Malaysian Government Securities (MGS) futures, there was no trading recorded throughout the day. - Bernama