RINGGIT RISES AGAINST US DOLLAR

THE ringgit closed higher yesterday in line with gains in Asian currencies, dealers said.

At 5pm, the local currency was traded at 3.3990/4030 compared with 3.4120/4150 at last Friday's close.

The dealers said Asian currencies traded higher yesterday, led by the South Korean won and Indonesian rupiah, on risk appetite.
"Signs of the global economic recovery building momentum has spurred demand for riskier assets," a dealer explained.

Against the Singapore dollar, the ringgit traded slightly lower at 2.4108/4160 from 2.4103/4146 last Friday but strengthened against the Japanese yen at 3.7107/7155 compared with 3.7176/7233 previously.

The local unit was little changed against the British pound at 5.2535/2617 from 5.2538/2591 last Friday but was lower against the euro at 4.6206/6277 from 4.6038/6096 previously.

INTERBANK RATES

SHORT-TERM interbank rates remained stable yesterday as Bank Negara Malaysia actively intervened in the money market by issuing tenders to keep them in check, dealers said.

The overnight rate was quoted at 2.0 per cent while the one-week, two-week and three-week rates hovered between 2.02 and 2.06 per cent.

In the morning, Bank Negara called for four conventional tenders, one Al-Wadiah tender and a repo tender.

Total liquidity surplus in the conventional system decreased to RM31.72 billion from the RM37.94 billion estimated earlier while in Islamic funds, it declined to RM3.13 billion from RM6.67 billion.

Later, the central bank conducted a conventional tender for RM31.7 billion of one-day money and an Al-Wadiah tender for RM3.1 billion of one-day money.

KLIBOR

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

As at the 11am fixing, the three-month KLIBOR was at 2.24 per cent.