Ringgit eases against the greenback

RINGGIT

KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit closed lower against the US dollar yesterday in line with the strengthening of the greenback lifted by positive US manufacturing data and weak global economic outlook, dealers said.

The US dollar is seen as a safe haven currency in times of economic crisis.

The ringgit was quoted at 3.1055/1085 from 3.0950/0980 previously. Against the Singapore dollar, the ringgit was higher at 2.4908/4936 from 2.5010/5042 previously and rose against the yen at 3.3175/3214 from 3.3402/3441 last Friday.

The ringgit gained against the euro at 4.0399/0442 from 4.0470/0519 last Friday and higher against the British pound at 4.6704/6758 from 4.6951/7009 previously.

INTERBANK RATES

KUALA LUMPUR: Short-term rates closed stable yesterday as Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) continued to intervene to absorb excess liquidity from the financial system.

Liquidity surplus in the conventional operations was trimmed to RM16.64 billion from RM24.53 billion estimated in the morning while the excess in the Islamic system eased to RM4.73 billion from RM11.56 billion earlier.

The central bank conducted six tenders comprising four conventional, one repo and one Al-Wadiah tenders.

BNM also issued a late tender for RM17 billion in the conventional operations and a RM4.8 billion Al-Wadiah tender, both for one day.

The overnight rate stood at 2.90 per cent while the one-, two- 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 untraded yesterday.

Spot month March 2013, April 2013 and May 2013 were unchanged at 96.79 each while June 2013 remained pegged at 96.78.

Open interest stood at 11,215 contracts. At the 11am fixing, the underlying three-month KLIBOR stood at 3.21 per cent. - Bernama