Ringgit continue to end lower

THE ringgit slid for the second consecutive day yesterday on continuous interest in the US dollar, a dealer said.

At 5pm, the ringgit was at 3.4120/4150 compared with Thursday close of 3.4000/4030.

The dealer said the recent unexpected move by the US Federal Reserve to lift interest rates for emergency loans buoyed demand for the greenback and made riskier currencies less attractive.
The further fall on Bursa Malaysia also eroded demand for the local unit. The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index lost 1.33 points to 1,257.67 as investors reduced their holdings ahead of the weekend.

"People were reluctant to take heavy positions amid the weakness in local and regional stock markets," the dealer said.

The local currency also traded lower against the Singapore dollar at 2.4103/4146 from 2.4093/4136 on Thursday.

However, it rose against the Japanese yen to 3.7176/7233 from 3.7396/7433, the British pound to 5.2538/2591 from 5.3088/3145 and the euro to 4.6038/6096 from 4.6101/6148.


INTERBANK RATES

SHORT-TERM interbank rates closed steady yesterday as Bank Negara Malaysia actively intervened, issuing several money market tenders to keep in check excess liquidity in the system, dealers said.

The overnight rate was quoted at 2.0 per cent, while the one-week, two-week and three-week rates hovered around 2.02 and 2.05 per cent.

Bank Negara this morning carried out five conventional tenders, three Al-Wadiah tenders, a repo tender as well as a Commodity Murabahah Programme tender to offset the liquidity surplus.

As a result, the excess in the conventional system was eased to RM25.01 billion from RM34.74 billion estimated earlier, while the surplus in the Islamic system reduced to RM6.99 billion from RM8.78 billion.

In late trading yesterday, the central bank also called tenders to borrow RM25 billion from the conventional operations and another RM5.2 billion from the Islamic funds, both of three-day money.


KLIBOR

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

The March 2010 contract declined 19 ticks to 97.58 with nine lots traded.

At 11am fixing, the underlying three-month KLIBOR was at 2.24 per cent. Meanwhile, the five-year Malaysian Government Securities futures closed untraded. - Bernama

NYMEX-Crude inches down near $77 as dollar stays strong

 TOKYO, Feb 18 (Reuters) - U.S. crude futures edged down towards $77 a barrel
on Thursday as the dollar held onto gains from the previous day, making commodities
such as crude oil costlier for holders of other currencies.

 FUNDAMENTALS

 * NYMEX crude for March delivery CLc1 was down 26 cents at $77.07 a barrel
by 0017 GMT, after settling up 32 cents on Wednesday, when the market weighed
upbeat news from the Federal Reserve and other positive economic data against pressure from a
stronger dollar.

 * U.S. crude oil inventories fell unexpectedly and product stocks rose as refineries
increased activity last week, according to weekly data from industry group
American Petroleum Institute released late on Wednesday. [API/S]

 The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its weekly oil statistics
later on Thursday. [EIA/S]