Ringgit 'roars' with regional currencies

 

RINGGIT

THE ringgit closed higher against the US dollar yesterday in line with gains in other Asian currencies, dealers said.

The Chinese Yuan, which is pegged to the US Dollar, has started "roaring" as the region takes charge in leading the global economic recovery.

Aberdeen Asset Management Director (Business Development) Donald Amstad said the Chinese government reacted to their domestic interest rate regime, rather than to external pressures, to allow the Yuan to appreciate.

"But this stance would change sooner or later," he added.

At 5pm, the local unit was traded at 3.4340/4390 compared with Monday's close of 3.4380/4430.

The local unit finished higher against the Japanese yen to 3.8339/8407 from 3.8396/8474 previously, rose against the euro to 4.7090/7169 from 4.7101/7179 and appreciated against the British pound to 5.3526/3624 from 5.3695/3787 on Monday.

It, however, declined against the Singapore dollar to 2.4154/4241 from Monday's close of 2.4174/4229.


INTERBANK RATES

SHORT-term interbank rates closed stable yesterday as Bank Negara Malaysia actively intervened by issuing several money market tenders to keep rates in check, dealers said.

At the 11am fixing, the overnight rate was quoted at 2 per cent while the one-week, two-week and three-week rates hovered between 2.02 per cent and 2.05 per cent.

The total liquidity surplus in the conventional system decreased to RM23.6 billion from the RM29.5 billion estimated earlier.

For Islamic funds, the total liquidity surplus declined to RM8.02 billion from an earlier estimate of RM11.4 billion.

The central bank conducted a late conventional tender for RM23.6 billion for one-day money and a RM8 billion Al-Wadiah tender for one-day money.


KLIBOR

THE three-month Kuala Lumpur Interbank Offered Rate (KLIBOR) futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed higher yesterday with one contract traded, dealers said.

The June 2010 contract added three ticks to settle at 97.45 with 200 lots changing hands.

The underlying three-month KLIBOR was flat at 2.22 per cent.

Meanwhile, the five-year Malaysia Government Securities futures were untraded throughout the day. - Bernama