Ringgit falls in cautious trade

RINGGIT

THE ringgit closed lower against the US dollar yesterday amid cautious trading, dealers said.

A dealer said the euro was shaken by concerns over the renewed rise in Italian bond yields while a debt agreement in the US remained unsettled.

The ringgit slipped to 2.9465/9495 against the greenback from 2.9370/3400 on Wednesday.

The ringgit was down against the Singapore dollar to 2.4491/4495 from 2.4463/4490 on Wednesday and the local unit slipped against the Japanese yen to 3.7907/7955 from 3.7809/7867 previously.

Against the British pound, the local currency was up to 4.8155/8213 from 4.8226/8284, previously, and appreciated against the euro to 4.2353/2402 from 4.2563/2618 on Wednesday.

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 RM25.84 billion from an earlier estimate of RM39.18 billion, while in the Islamic system, it was reduced to RM6.78 billion from the RM7.3 billion estimated earlier.

Bank Negara yesterday called for a conventional tender, three Al-Wadiah tenders and a repo tender. It also called for late tenders comprising a RM25.8 billion conventional tender and an Al-Wadiah tender for RM6.5 billion, both for one-day money.

KLIBOR

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

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