Ringgit up on strong demand

RINGGIT

RINGGIT closed higher against the US dollar yesterday as demand for the local currency remained strong, dealers said.

A dealer said investors remained on the sidelines awaiting to see if the US was going to avoid a technical default.

The ringgit firmed to 2.9370/3400 against the greenback from 2.9540/9560 at 5pm on Tuesday.

The local currency rebounded against the Singapore dollar to 2.4463/4490 from 2.4522/4568 on Tuesday, and remained flat versus theJapanese yen at 3.7809/7867.

Against the British pound, the ringgit increased to 4.8226/8284 from 4.8384/8425 previously, and it appreciated against the euro to 4.2563/2618 from 4.2765/2806 on Tuesday. - Bernama

INTERBANK RATES

SHORT-TERM rates closed stable yesterday as Bank Negara Malaysia continued to mop up excess liquidity from the money market, dealers said.

The overnight rate was pegged at 2.99 per cent while the one, two and three-week rates were pegged at 3.02, 3.04 and 3.06 per cent respectively.

The liquidity surplus in the conventional operations was reduced to RM17.18 billion from an earlier estimate of RM29.43 billion, while in the Islamic system it was reduced to RM5.9 billion from the RM7.62 billion estimated earlier.

Bank Negara yesterday called for a conventional tender, three Al-Wadiah tenders, a repo tender and a commodity murabahah programme tender.

It also called for late tenders comprising a RM22.3 billion conventional tender and an Al-Wadiah tender for RM5.6 billion, both one-day money.

KLIBOR

THE three-month Kuala Lumpur Interbank Offered Rate (KLIBOR) futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed untraded yesterday.

At the 11am fixing, the underlying three-month KLIBOR remained at 3.29 per cent.

The five-year Malaysian Government Securities futures were also untraded. — Bernama