RINGGIT

THE ringgit closed higher against the US dollar yesterday on an improved risk appetite, dealers said.

At the close, the ringgit stood at 3.1105/1135 to the US dollar, compared to 3.1320/1370 on Tuesday.

A dealer said risk appetite improved among investors after a report that Europe will act to strengthen the Eurozone’s rescue fund.

Against other major currencies, the ringgit traded mixed.

The ringgit fell against the Singapore dollar to 2.4628/4671 from Tuesday’s 2.4565/4619 but the local unit rose against the yen to 4.0501/0556 from 4.0744/0836 previously.

It appreciated against the British pound to 4.8990/9047 from Tuesday’s 4.9238/9326 but lost against the euro to 4.2993/2041 from 4.2852/2933 on Monday.

INTERBANK RATES

SHORT-TERM rates closed steady yesterday as Bank Negara Malaysia continued to absorb excess liquidity from the money market.

The overnight rate was fixed at 2.98 per cent while the one-week, two-week and three-week rates stood at 3.02, 3.05 and 3.07 per cent, respectively.

The liquidity surplus in the conventional operations was reduced to RM15.33 billion, from an earlier estimate of RM23.86 billion, while in the Islamic system, it rose to RM5.29 billion, from RM3.22 billion, earlier.

The central bank earlier conducted a range maturity auction, a repo and two Al-Wadiah tenders. It also issued two late tenders comprising RM15.3 billion in the conventional system and a RM3.8 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 untraded yesterday.

The underlying three-month KLIBOR was fixed at 3.26 per cent.

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