Ringgit rises against US dollar

KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit closed higher against the US dollar yesterday, in line with advances in Asian currencies, dealers said.

This, they added, was prompted by positive economic data from the US which bolstered the risk-appetite for Asian assets and investments.

The ringgit rose against the US dollar yesterday to 3.0520/0540 from 3.0565/0595 on Monday.

The local currency gained against the Singapore dollar to 2.4967/5004 from 2.5018/5047 on Monday and rose against the yen to 3.8701/8747 from 3.8897/8950 previously.

The local currency, improved against the British pound to 4.9070/9111 from 4.9094/9151 on Monday, but was lower against the euro at 3.9642/9675 from 3.9621/9669.

INTERBANK RATES

KUALA LUMPUR: Short-term rates were kept steady yesterday with Bank Negara Malaysia continuing to intervene in the money market to absorb surplus liquidity, dealers said.

The liquidity surplus in the conventional operations increased to RM12.96 billion from RM11.99 billion estimated yesterday morning, while the surplus in the Islamic system increased to RM6.23 billion from RM5.65 billion.

Earlier yesterday, the central bank conducted six tenders, comprising two conventional, three Al-Wadiah and a repo tender.

Bank Negara also issued a late conventional tender for RM10.9 billion and an Al-Wadiah tender for RM3.3 billion, both one-day money.

The overnight rate stood at 2.99 per cent, while the one-week, two-week and three-week rates were pegged at 3.01, 3.03 and 3.05 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 one contract month traded.

December 2012 was unchanged at 96.83 with 800 lots traded.
Spot month October 2012, November 2012 and March 2013 were unchanged at 96.78, 96.79 and 96.87 respectively. Open interest stood at 13,155 contracts.

The five-year Malaysian Government Securities futures contracts were untraded on lack of buying interests. The underlying three-month KLIBOR stood at 3.20 per cent as at 11 am fixing. - Bernama

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