Ringgit slips on selling pressure

RINGGIT

THE ringgit closed lower against the US dollar yesterday on selling pressure, dealers said.

At 5pm, the ringgit was quoted at 3.1760/1790 per US dollar compared with 3.1640/1670 at 5pm yesterday.

Dealers said the euro extended its losses in thin year-end trading and single currency was likely to stay vulnerable.





The ringgit was mixed against other major currencies.

It was
unchanged against the Singapore dollar at 2.4382/4409 but weakened
against the Japanese yen to 4.0859/0924, from 4.0695/0738, previously.

The
local unit rose against the British pound to 4.8996/8049, from
4.9561/9617 on Wednesday, and rose against the euro to 4.1059/1104, from
4.1350/1402, previously.

INTERBANK RATES

SHORT-TERM
rates closed steady yesterday as Bank Negara Malaysia continued to
intervene to mop up surplus liquidity from the market.

The
overnight rate was fixed at 2.96 per cent while the one-week, two-week
and three-week rates stood at 3.00, 3.02 and 3.04 per cent,
respectively.

The liquidity surplus in conventional operations
was reduced to RM36.34 billion, from an earlier estimate of RM47.05
billion, while in the Islamic system, it increased to RM10.34 billion
from RM9.42 billion, earlier.

The central bank conducted six tenders comprising three conventional, one repo and two Al-Wadiah.

It
also issued a late tender for RM36 billion in the conventional system
and a RM9.1 billion Al-Wadiah tender, both for one-day money.

KLIBOR

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

The underlying three-month KLIBOR stood at 3.22 per cent.

January 2012, February 2012, March 2012 and June 2012 remained pegged at 96.82, 96.82, 96.93 and 96.98, respectively.

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