Ringgit eases against the greenback

RINGGIT

KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit closed lower against the US dollar yesterday on weaker demand from corporate investors, dealers said.

The ringgit was quoted at 3.1100/1120 from 3.1065/1095 on Wednesday.

A dealer said demand shifted to the dollar amid profit-taking as the ringgit has been outperforming the dollar over the past few days.

Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded mostly higher against other major currencies.

It was lower against the British pound at 4.6435/6475 from 4.6368/6419 on Wednesday.

The local currency strengthened against the euro to 4.0290/0319 from 4.0444/0486.

INTERBANK RATES

KUALA LUMPUR: Short-term rates closed stable yesterday, with Bank Negara Malaysia intervening in the money market to absorb excess liquidity, dealers said.

The liquidity surplus in the conventional operations fell to RM12.31 billion from RM18.17 billion estimated in the morning while the excess in the Islamic system eased to RM1.99 billion from RM3.21 billion earlier.

The central bank conducted seven tenders - four conventional, a repo, an Al-wadiah and a commodity murabahah programme.

Bank Negara also issued a late conventional tender for RM12.5 billion and an Al-Wadiah tender for RM2 billion, both for one-day money.

The overnight rate stood at 2.90 per cent, while the one-week, two-week and three-week rates were pegged at 2.98, 3.01 and 3.04 per cent, respectively.

KLIBOR

KUALA LUMPUR: The three-month Kuala Lumpur Interbank Offered Rate (KLIBOR) futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed flat yesterday, with only one contract month traded.

March 2013 was unchanged at 96.79, with 50 lots traded.

April 2013 and May 2013 remained pegged at 96.79 each, while June 2013 stayed at 96.78.

Open interest stood at 10,460 contracts. At the 11am fixing, the underlying three-month KLIBOR remained unchanged at 3.21 per cent. - Bernama