KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit opened marginally lower against the US dollar today as investors await interest rate decisions by major central banks this week, an economist said.
At 9 am, the local note eased to 4.6890/6940 against the greenback from yesterday’s close of 4.6870/6915.
Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist and social finance head Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said market players will be monitoring the United States Federal Open Market Committee two-day meeting beginning today for guidance on the macroeconomic environment.
“The Bank of England will also hold its monetary policy meeting on Sept 21 whereby they are anticipated to deliver another 25 basis points hike that would bring the bank rate to 5.50 per cent.
“The Bank of Japan will also meet up on Sept 22 with no change expected in their policy stance,” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded mostly lower against a basket of major currencies in the early session.
It depreciated against the Japanese yen to 3.1755/1791 from 3.1750/1783 at Monday’s close and edged down against the euro at 5.0116/0169 from 5.0020/0068 yesterday, but rose versus the British pound to 5.8059/8121 from 5.8128/8184 previously.
At the same time, the local note traded lower against other Asean currencies.
It weakened vis-à-vis the Singapore dollar to 3.4387/4429 from 3.4347/4383 at yesterday’s close and fell against the Philippines’ peso to 8.27/8.29 from 8.24/8.25 previously.
It also went down against the Indonesian rupiah to 305.0/305.5 from 304.8/305.3 on Monday and slid against the Thai baht to 13.1407/1595 from 13.1156/1337 previously.
Short-term rates remain stable
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 RM33.30 billion in the conventional system and RM18.89 billion in Islamic funds.
Today, the central bank will conduct two conventional money market tenders, comprising a RM1 billion tender for seven days and a RM500 million tender for 14 days, as well as a RM500 million Qard tender for seven days.
It will also call for two reverse repo tenders, namely a RM1.5 billion tender for 30 days and a RM500 million tender for 91 days, and will be issuing a RM2 billion Bank Negara Interbank Bills Islamic (BNIBI) tender for 32 days on Sept 21.
BNM 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, it will conduct up to RM33.8 billion conventional overnight tender and RM18.4 billion for Murabahah overnight tender.
Foreign exchange rates
Following are the opening Malaysian foreign exchange for major currencies today:
1 USD 4.6890/6940
100 yen 3.1755/1791
1 pound 5.8059/8121
1 euro 5.0116/0169
1 SGD 3.4387/4429
100 baht 13.1407/1595
1 mln rupiah 305.0/305.5
100 pesos 8.27/8.29
Exchange rates issued by Malayan Banking Bhd today
| SELLING TT/OD | BUYING TT | BUYING OD | |
| 1 US Dollar | 4.7540 | 4.6210 | 4.6110 |
| 1 Australian Dollar | 3.0820 | 2.9610 | 2.9450 |
| 1 Brunei Dollar | 3.4880 | 3.3880 | 3.3800 |
| 1 Canadian Dollar | 3.5250 | 3.4320 | 3.4200 |
| 1 Euro | 5.0940 | 4.9310 | 4.9110 |
| 1 New Zealand Dollar | 2.8290 | 2.7250 | 2.7090 |
| 1 Papua N Guinea Kina | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 1 Singapore Dollar | 3.4880 | 3.3880 | 3.3800 |
| 1 Sterling Pound | 5.8990 | 5.7160 | 5.6960 |
| 1 Swiss Franc | 5.2880 | 5.1670 | 5.1520 |
| 100 UAE Dirham | 131.0300 | 124.3000 | 124.1000 |
| 100 Bangladesh Taka | 4.4160 | 4.1300 | 3.9300 |
| 100 Chinese Renminbi | 65.6800 | 62.9400 | N/A |
| 100 Danish Krone | 70.0400 | 64.4800 | 64.2800 |
| 100 Hongkong Dollar | 61.5100 | 58.4800 | 58.2800 |
| 100 Indian Rupee | 5.8100 | 5.4600 | 5.2600 |
| 100 Indonesian Rupiah | 0.0320 | 0.0290 | 0.0240 |
| 100 Japanese Yen | 3.2250 | 3.1240 | 3.1140 |
| 100 New Taiwan Dollar | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 100 Norwegian Krone | 45.2100 | 41.6000 | 41.4000 |
| 100 Pakistan Rupee | 1.6400 | 1.5300 | 1.3300 |
| 100 Philippine Peso | 8.5200 | 8.0300 | 7.8300 |
| 100 Qatar Riyal | 131.9800 | 125.2900 | 125.0900 |
| 100 Saudi Riyal | 128.2700 | 121.7700 | 121.5700 |
| 100 South Africa Rand | 25.9800 | 23.4600 | 23.2600 |
| 100 Sri Lanka Rupee | 1.5100 | 1.3800 | 1.1800 |
| 100 Swedish Krona | 44.0500 | 40.1400 | 39.9400 |
| 100 Thai Baht | 13.9300 | 12.3600 | 11.9600 |
Gold up
The physical price of gold as at 9.30 am stood at RM282.02 per gramme, up 88 sen from RM281.14 at 5 pm yesterday. – BERNAMA
