Ringgit ends lower against major currencies

RINGGIT

The ringgit eased against the US dollar yesterday on lack of commercial demand for the local note, dealers said.

The local currency was also traded lower due to technical correction as investors cashed in on recent gains.

At close yesterday, the local currency declined to 3.3740/3760 against the US dollar from 3.3690/3730 last Friday.

"Although interest rates in the United States are expected to remain low, investors often buy dollars when confidence in a global recovery slackens and they prefer to sell higher-yielding but higher-risk currencies and assets," one dealer said.

The local unit moved between 3.3740 and 3.3900 yesterday.

With the exception of the British pound, the ringgit ended lower against other major currencies.

It depreciated against the Singapore dollar to 2.4240/4303 from 2.4171/4235 last Friday and was also lower against the yen at 3.7245/7275 from 3.6925/6981 previously.

The ringgit was also easier against the euro at 5.0377/0414 from 5.0175/0244 last week.

It however, strengthened against the British pound to 5.4946/4995 from 5.5097/5176.

INTERBANK RATES

Short-term rates remained stable yesterday as Bank Negara Malaysia continued to intervene in the market to mop up excess liquidity, dealers said.

The overnight rate was at 1.92 per cent while the one-week at 1.95 per cent, and the two-week and three-week rates at 1.97 per cent, and 2.0 per cent respectively.

At close yesterday, the liquidity surplus in the conventional system was down to RM14.751 billion from RM20.668 billion estimated earlier yesterday morning.

As for Islamic funds, the liquidity surplus was brought down to RM4.704 billion from the earlier estimate of RM8.419 billion.

The central bank had earlier conducted three conventional, one repo and three Al-Wadiah tenders as well as one commodity murabahah programme tender.

Bank Negara also called for a late conventional tender for RM14.700 billion and an Al-Wadiah tender for RM4.7 billion of one-day money respectively.


KLIBOR

The three-month Kuala Lumpur Inter-Bank Offered Rate (KLIBOR) futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed mostly lower yesterday, dealers said.

The futures market saw three outright transactions -- December 2009 gained four ticks to 97.80, September 2010 down two ticks to 96.98 and December 2010 declined two ticks to 96.71.

Total volume rose to 261 lots from 210 lots last Friday while open interest rose to 33,604 contracts from 33,444 contracts previously.

At the 11am fixing yesterday, the underlying three-month KLIBOR was flat at 2.15 per cent.

The five-year Malaysian Government Securities were not traded. -- BERNAMA