Short-term rates close steady Wednesday

Short-term rates closed steady today, with Bank Negara Malaysia intervening in the money market to absorb excess liquidity, dealers said.

The liquidity surplus in the conventional operations fell to RM10.01 billion from the RM17.02 billion estimated in the morning, while the excess in the Islamic system eased to RM1.78 billion from RM2.59 billion.

The central bank conducted four tenders -- a range maturity auction, a repo, an Al-wadiah and a commodity murabahah programme.

Bank Negara also issued a late conventional tender for RM10 billion and an Al-Wadiah tender for RM1.8 billion, both for one-day money.