KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit opened marginally lower against the US dollar on Monday amid ongoing cautious sentiments surrounding global growth.
At 9 am, the local note fell to 4.6160/6205 against the greenback from 4.6130/6165 at the close last Friday.
Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist and social finance head Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the ringgit is expected to continue being traded within a tight range today due to prevailing uncertainties on the United States Federal Reserve’s (Fed) fund rate.
“Investors will also monitor Fed’s chair Jerome Powell’s testimony to the Joint Economic Committee on Thursday for more insights on how the Fed would prescribe its monetary policy in the second half of 2023,” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded mostly higher against a basket of major currencies.
It depreciated versus the British pound to 5.9177/9235 from 5.9014/9059 last Friday, but appreciated against the Japanese yen to 3.2523/2557 from 3.2721/2748 and strengthened vis-a-vis the euro to 5.0481/0530 from 5.0503/0541 previously.
At the same time, the local note traded mixed against other Asean currencies.
The ringgit rose against the Thai baht to 13.2846/3041 from last week’s 13.2974/3140 and went up against the Singapore dollar to 3.4471/4510 against 3.4513/4542.
However, it was lower versus the Indonesian rupiah at 308.9/309.4 from 308.7/309.1 and declined against the Philippines’ peso to 8.28/8.30 from 8.26/8.27 last week.
Short-term rates
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 RM48.87 billion in the conventional system and RM29.85 billion in Islamic funds.
Today, the central bank will conduct two RM1.5 billion conventional money market tenders, each one for seven days and 14 days, respectively.
It will also conduct one RM2 billion Qard tender for seven days and a reverse repo tender of RM1 billion for 31 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 RM45.9 billion conventional overnight tender and RM26.9 billion for Murabahah overnight tender.
Foreign exchange rates
Following are the opening Malaysian foreign exchange for major currencies today:
1 USD 4.6160/6205
100 yen 3.2523/2557
1 pound 5.9177/9235
1 euro 5.0481/0530
1 SGD 3.4471/4510
100 baht 13.2846/3041
1 mln rupiah 308.9/309.4
100 pesos 8.28/8.30
Gold down
The physical price of gold as at 9.30 am stood at RM280.86 per gramme, down 96 sen from RM281.82 at 5 pm last Friday. – BERNAMA
