At 9.12 am(0112 gmt), the local unit was quoted at 4.4230/4280 against last Friday's 4.4230/4280 at 6pm on Friday.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's bond market continues to be resilient as the last two primary auctions of government bonds recorded a healthy bid-to-cover ratio of more than two times.
The Financial Markets Committee (FMC) said on Friday that average daily trading volume in the secondary bond market rose to RM4.2bil.
“Non-resident holdings of long-term government papers stood at 25.1% as at end April 2017.
“Since April, non-residents have recorded portfolio inflows into MGS (Malaysian Government Securities) with maturity of less than 3 years and above five years,” it said.
FMC said due to the higher market demand, MGS benchmark yields eased lower between 8 basis points and 32 bps across the yield curve.
It pointed out the second series of initiatives to develop the onshore financial market, which came into effect on May 2 provided additional flexibility to fund managers and corporates to manage their foreign currency exposure.
“In addition, residents may now undertake short-selling activities to manage interest rate exposure,” it said.
FMC said together with the broader market developments which saw strengthening interest in emerging market financial assets, ringgit traded at 4.32 against the US dollar from 4.40 previously.
It also pointed out the onshore foreign exchange market continues to record a daily average volume of US$10bil, of which trading volume for the ringgit currency pairs has increased to a daily average of US$6.3bil for April (end-February 2017: US$5.2bil).
From this, the spot and forward transactions recorded an average of US$2.5bil daily.
The exchange rate remains stable with US$/Ringgit one-month implied volatility recording a lower average of 4.5%. Average intraday movement recorded a daily average of 74 points while the bid-ask spread recorded an average of 24.3 basis points since end-February 2017.
FMC also said for the trade sector, US$105bil of foreign exchange transactions in relation to exports and imports of goods was recorded year to date.
“Data indicates a more balanced FX flows between exports and imports, consistent with the trade surplus in the current account. Year to date, exports conversion exceeds imports by US$919mil,” it said.
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