KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit opened marginally better against the US dollar today despite the further strengthening of the greenback’s appeal as a safe haven currency following the chaos in Russia over the weekend, dealers said.
At 9 am, the local unit rose to 4.6725/6790 versus the greenback compared to 4.6760/6805 at last Friday’s close.
SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes said risk sentiments were impacted by the aborted mutiny in Russia, and noted that global investors remained spooked by central bank monetary tightening.
He also highlighted that over the past month, the Malaysian ringgit has underperformed ASEAN peers alongside the Chinese yuan, adding that the ‘joined-at-the-hip’ affinity reflects deep trade ties and that policymaker’s focus is often on the ringgit-Chinese yuan cross rate.
“The Renminbi opened relatively quiet this morning. Given the expectations of further moderate weakness in the Chinese currency and no clear catalyst for improving portfolio flows, even if the ringgit improves a bit, we expect to see buyers of US dollars on dips,” he told Bernama.
In the meantime, the ringgit was traded mixed against a basket of major currencies.
It was easier versus the British pound at 5.9495/9578 from 5.9469/9527 at Friday’s close and was weaker vis-a-vis the euro at 5.0954/1024 from 5.0781/0830 last week, but rose against the Japanese yen to 3.2577/2627 from 3.2645/2680 previously.
The local note was also traded mixed against other Asean currencies.
The ringgit went down against the Singapore dollar to 3.4578/4628 versus 3.4568/4604 at last Friday’s close and declined against the Thai baht to 13.2877/3115 from 13.2765/2950 previously.
However, it had strengthened against the Philippines’ peso to 8.37/8.40 from 8.38/8.40 last week and rose versus the Indonesian rupiah to 311.4/312.1 from 311.7/312.2 previously.
Short-term rates stable
KUALA LUMPUR: Short-term rates are expected to remain stable today on Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) operations to absorb surplus liquidity from the financial system.
Liquidity is estimated at RM47.51 billion in the conventional system and RM28.28 billion in Islamic funds.
Today, the central bank will conduct a RM500 million conventional money market tender for seven days and a RM900 million Qard tender for seven days.
It will also call for two reverse repo tenders, consisting of a RM1 billion tender for 30 days and a RM500 million tender for 92 days, as well as a RM5 billion Bank Negara Interbank Bills Islamic tender for 30 days.
The central bank also announced the availability of reverse repo, sale and buy-back agreements as well as Collateralised Commodity Murabahah facilities for tenors of one to three months.
At 4 pm, BNM will conduct up to RM48.5 billion conventional overnight tender and RM27.4 billion for Murabahah overnight tender.
Foreign exchange rates
Following are the opening Malaysian foreign exchange for major currencies today:
1 USD 4.6725/6790
100 yen 3.2577/2627
1 pound 5.9495/9578
1 euro – 5.0954/1024
1 SGD 3.4578/4628
100 baht 13.2877/3115
1 mln rupiah 311.4/312.1
100 pesos 8.37/8.40
Gold up
The physical price of gold as at 9.30 am stood at RM280.12 per gramme, up rm1.33 from RM278.79 at 5 pm yesterday. – BERNAMA
