Ringgit declines against greenback

RINGGIT

THE ringgit closed lower against the greenback yesterday due to month-end related US dollar demand, dealers said.

At 5pm, the ringgit declined to 3.4810/4850 against the greenback from 3.4780/4820 at Monday's closing.

The dealers said bidding interest from foreign banks and month-end corporate interest provided support for the US dollar.

"A positive catalyst for the ringgit is still far-off, with the flow for now, skewed towards US dollar bids," a dealer said.

The dealer also said the ringgit is likely to decline further due to a comment by the European Central Bank president, that the commitment of US policy makers to a strong US dollar, is important in keeping currency markets and the global economy stable.

Compared with the Singapore dollar, the local unit declined to 2.4554/4599 from 2.4471/4533 but rose against the Japanese yen to 3.8786/8852 from 3.8886/8944.

The ringgit appreciated against the British pound to 5.5219/5303 from 5.5318/5399 as well as against the euro to 5.0781/0857 from 5.0869/0938.

INTERBANK RATES

SHORT-TERM rates closed steady yesterday as Bank Negara Malaysia intervened in the money market to absorb surplus funds, dealers said.

The overnight rate was fixed at 1.92 per cent while the one-week, two-week and three-week rates were at 1.95, 1.97 and 1.99 per cent respectively.

Total liquidity in the conventional system was reduced to RM20.23 billion from an earlier estimate of RM26.61 billion, while Islamic funds dropped to RM7.35 billion from an earlier estimate of RM9.69 billion.

Bank Negara carried out four conventional and four Al-Wadiah tenders as well as a repo tender and two commodity murabahah tenders this morning. The central bank later issued a conventional tender for RM20.20 billion of one-day money and an Al-Wadiah tender for RM7.3 billion of one-day money.

KLIBOR

THE three-month Kuala Lumpur Interbank Offered Rate (Klibor) futures on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed untraded yesterday, with all contracts remaining at Monday's settlement prices.

October 2009, November 2009, December 2009 and March 2010 were unchanged at 97.81, 97.80, 97.80 and 97.63 respectively.

The underlying three-month Klibor was fixed at 2.14 per cent.

The five-year Malaysian Government Securities (MGS) futures were also untraded. - Bernama