Ringgit higher against US dollar

RINGGIT

RINGGIT closed higher against the US dollar yesterday as investors shifted their interest from the safe-haven greenback to higher-yielding currencies and assets, dealers said.

At 5pm, the local currency appreciated against the US dollar to 3.3900/3930 from Monday's closing of 3.3970/4020.

A dealer said some fund managers bought the local currency to participate in the local stock market, which provided a lot of opportunity to invest in quality value-added stocks.

The FBM Kuala Lumpur Composite Index yesterday closed 0.18 of a point higher at 1,233.51.

The ringgit moved between 3.3870 and 3.3995 during yesterday.

Meanwhile, the local note was mixed against other major currencies.

It appreciated against the Singapore dollar to 2.4231/4282 from Monday's close of 2.4252/4314 but declined against the Japanese yen to 3.7662/7713 versus 3.7615/7683 previously.

Against the British pound, the ringgit strengthened to 5.3246/3322 compared with Monday's closing of 5.3577/3673 but depreciated against the euro to 5.0092/0158 versus 5.0024/0108 previously.

INTERBANK RATES

SHORT-TERM rates remained stable yesterday as Bank Negara Malaysia continued to intervene to offset the liquidity surplus in the financial system, dealers said.

At the end of the day, the liquidity surplus was reduced to RM12.33 billion in the conventional system and RM6.69 billion in Islamic funds.

Bank Negara had earlier estimated a surplus of RM18.19 billion in the conventional operations and RM7.28 billion for the Islamic system.

The central bank had earlier conducted two conventional tenders, a Repo tender, three Al-Wadiah tenders as well as a Commodity Murabahah Programme tender.

Bank Negara also called for a late conventional tender for RM12.3 billion of one-day money and an Al-Wadiah tender for RM6.6 billion of one-day money.

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

KLIBOR

THE three-month Kuala Lumpur Inter-Bank Offered Rate (KLIBOR) futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives were slightly higher at close yesterday with two outright transactions, a dealer said.

The futures market saw December 2009 rise two ticks to 97.82 and September 2010 was up by six ticks to 97.23.

Total volume declined to 25 lots from the 45 lots yesterday while open interests rose to 33,200 contracts from 33,190 contracts previously. At the 11am fixing yesterday, the underlying three-month KLIBOR remained flat at 2.15 per cent.

As for the five-year Malaysian Government Securities, no trading was recorded throughout the day. - Bernama