Bank Negara’s international reserves up 0.63% to US$95.3b

by **Cals** Tue 22 Sep 2015, 23:26

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[size=28]Bank Negara’s international reserves up 0.63% to US$95.3b

By Meena Lakshana / theedgemarkets.com | September 22, 2015 : 8:46 PM MYT

KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 22): The international reserves of Bank Negara Malaysia have increased by 0.63% to US$95.3 billion (RM360.1 billion), as at Sept 15, from US$94.7 billion (RM357.7 billion) on Aug 28, 2015.

In a statement today, Bank Negara said the reserves’ position as at Sept 15 is sufficient to finance 7.3 months of retained imports and is 1.1 times the short-term external debt.

Short-term external debt refers to short-term offshore borrowing, non-resident holdings of short-term ringgit debt securities, non-resident deposits with the banking system, and other short-term debt, according to the statement.

This is the second consecutive increase in international reserves recorded by the central bank since June 30 this year.

The first increase was to US$94.7 billion (RM357.7 billion) as at Aug 28 from US$94.5 billion (RM356.4 billion) at Aug 14.

Analysts have previously raised concerns over Bank Negara’s international reserves, which had declined below US$100 billion on July 31, to stymie the further decline of the ringgit.

The ringgit retreated 0.75% to 4.3042 against the US dollar. Compared to the Singapore dollar, the ringgit weakened 0.2% to 3.0400.

The FBM KLCI also veered into negative territory today, closing 4.1 points or 0.3% at 1,635.37 points due to selling pressure on banking and plantation stocks such as Public Bank Bhd ([You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Valuation: 1.80, Fundamental: 2.80) and Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd ( Valuation: 0.50, Fundamental: 1.00).

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)

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