Ringgit falls after three days of gains

RINGGIT

PROFIT-TAKING prompted the ringgit to close sharply lower against the US dollar after three days of gains, dealers said.

Investors
turned to the safe-haven greenback against the backdrop of renewed
concerns over the still unresolved Eurozone debt crisis.

At 5pm, the ringgit was quoted at 3.1480/1520 against 3.1350/1380 previously.





The local currency was marginally higher against the Singapore dollar at
2.4345/4394 versus 2.4367/4394, on Wednesday, but depreciated against
the yen to 4.0974/1052, from 4.0879/0934 previously.

The ringgit
was lower against the British pound at 4.9021/9086, from 4.8991/9050,
but rose sharply against the euro to 4.0508/0576, from 4.0862/0907 on
Wednesday.

INTERBANK RATES

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

The overnight rate
was fixed at 2.96 per cent while the one-, two- 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 RM24.86
billion from an earlier estimate of RM44.01 billion, while in the
Islamic system it declined to RM4.69 billion from RM10.97 billion.

The
central bank conducted seven tenders - one conventional, four Al-Wadiah
and two repo. Bank Negara also issued a late tender for RM25 billion in
the conventional system and a RM4.6 billion Al-Wadiah tender, both for
one-day money.

KLIBOR

THE three-month Kuala Lumpur
Interbank Offered Rate (KLIBOR) futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia
Derivatives closed flat with only one contract month traded.

March 2012 was unchanged from Wednesday's level of 96.88 with 300 lots traded.

The
five-year Malaysian Government Securities futures contract was
untraded. The underlying three-month KLIBOR remained at 3.22 per cent. -
Bernama