Ringgit lower against greenback

RINGGIT

THE ringgit was lower against the US dollar at close yesterday on mild profit-taking after the local currency hit a nine-month high the previous day.

At close, the ringgit eased to 3.4630/4660 to the dollar compared with the previous day's closing of 3.4600/4630, when the ringgit gained on the back of news that Malaysia had won a US$1.5 billion investment deal from Saudi Arabia.

A dealer said investors are bidding for the greenback again, ahead of the US manufacturing and payrolls data, at the end of the week.

"However, the long-term trend for fund flows would still be positive as investors are looking for better investment returns elsewhere," the dealer said.

Compared with the Singapore dollar, the ringgit declined to 2.4541/4575 from 2.4527/4574 the previous day but rose against the Japanese yen to 3.8469/8515 from 3.8677/8714 earlier.

The ringgit was higher against the British pound at 5.5256/5317 from 5.5651/5716 the previous day as well as against the Euro at 5.0480/0531 from 5.0627/0674 earlier.

SHORT-TERM

SHORT-TERM rates closed steady yesterday as Bank Negara Malaysia intervened in the money market to absorb surplus funds, dealers said.

The overnight rate was fixed at 1.92 per cent while the one-week, two-week and three-week rates were pegged at 1.95 per cent, 1.97 per cent and 1.99 per cent respectively.

Total liquidity in the conventional system was reduced to RM21.172 billion from an earlier estimate of RM36.991 billion while Islamic funds declined to RM6.907 billion from an earlier estimate of RM11.580 billion.

Bank Negara carried out five conventional tenders, three Al-Wadiah tenders and two tenders, each for repo and Commodity Murabahah Programme yesterday morning.

The central bank later issued a conventional tender for RM21.1 billion of one-day money and an Al-Wadiah tender for RM6.9 billion of one-day money.

KLIBOR

THE three-month Kuala Lumpur Interbank Offered Rate (KLIBOR) futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives were untraded at close yesterday, dealers said.

Oct 2009, Nov 2009, Dec 2009 and March 2010 stood at 97.83, 97.82, 97.82 and 97.65, respectively.

On the cash market, the underlying three-month KLIBOR remained at 2.15 per cent.

The five-year Malaysian Government Securities (MGS) futures were also untraded, with December 2009, March 2010, June 2010 and Sept 2010 standing at 109.65, 108.68, 107.72 and 106.8, respectively. - BERNAMA