Ringgit down as the greenback strengthens

RINGGIT

KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit closed lower against the US dollar yesterday as the greenback strengthened to its near six-month high against major currencies, dealers said.

The ringgit was quoted at 3.1070/1090 from 3.1050/1070 yesterday. The dealers said the overnight rally in US stocks and an improved outlook in the American jobs market boosted the strength of the US dollar.

The local currency was higher against the Singapore dollar at 2.4906/4926 from 2.4944/4962 and rose against the yen at 3.3071/3106 from 3.3230/3269 previously.

The ringgit also rose against the British pound at 4.6574/6616 from 4.6895/6934 and gained against the euro at 4.0466/0498 from 4.0533/0568.

INTERBANK RATES

KUALA LUMPUR: Short-term rates closed stable yesterday as Bank Negara Malaysia intervened to absorb excess liquidity from the financial system.

The liquidity surplus in the conventional operations was trimmed to RM19.37 billion from RM26.40 billion estimated in the morning while the excess in the Islamic system eased to RM3.53 billion from RM6.83 billion earlier.

The central bank conducted 10 tenders - four conventional, one repo and four Al-Wadiah and one Commodity Murabahah programme.

Bank Negara also issued a late tender for RM19.5 billion in the conventional operations and a RM2.2 billion Al-Wadiah tender, both for one-day.

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 unchanged yesterday, with only three contract months traded.

Spot month March 2013, June 2013 and Sept 2013 was unchanged at 96.79, 96.78 and 96.77.

Turnover stood at 725 lots while open intrest was at 11,940 contracts.

There was no trading for KLIBOR futures on Wednesday. At the 11am fixing, the underlying three-month KLIBOR stood at 3.21 per cent. - Bernama