KUALA LUMPUR: The liquidity on the onshore foreign exchange (FX) market recorded a higher daily average volume of US$9 billion (US$1 = RM4.48) across all FX transactions this month, comparable to the average of US$8 billion from January to November, said Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) Financial Markets Committee (FMC).
“Against the backdrop of a stronger US dollar and continued uncertainties, the ringgit’s intra-day movement averages around 90 points compared to 228 points in November and a high of 600 points (measured through difference between the highest and lowest exchange rate in the interbank market during the day).
“FX flows comprise supply and demand from all major participants, including the exporters/importers, portfolio-related and direct investments,” the FMC said in a statement today.
The statement provided an update following the FMC’s last note on the recent measures to enhance the liquidity of the FX market, issued on Dec 9, 2016.
Besides higher daily average volume, the FMC said, the disruptive influence from the non-deliverable forward market has also subsided.
“As the demand and supply of the US dollar/ringgit realigned, onshore FX market will further stabilise and will lead to better cost of hedging and facilitate businesses in managing their FX risks,” it said.
The committee said the financial market has responded positively to the fund manager’s hedging framework, which allowed registered fund managers to actively manage up to 25 per cent of their invested portfolio.
To-date, 10 fund managers, consisting of both residents and non-residents, had registered with BNM with a total asset under management eligible under the framework of RM41.8 billion, it said.
“Fund managers have started to utilise this flexibility,” it said.
In the secondary bond market, it said, there continued to be two-way flows from both resident and non-resident investors with average bid-offer spread of three basis points for benchmark securities.
It said trading activities remained robust with average daily trading volume of RM4.5 billion and month-to-date volume of RM52.8 billion.
The FMC said resident companies recorded net trade inflows under goods in excess of RM2 billion in December 2016, as compared to the cumulative net outflows under goods from January-November 2016.
In addition to maintaining 25 per cent of export proceeds in foreign currencies, exporters were allowed to reconvert their export proceeds to meet up to six-month forward projection of their loans and imports obligations, it said.
The committee said December data indicated that around 57 per cent of the proceeds were reconverted for this purpose, while the remaining proceeds in ringgit enjoyed a return of 3.25 per cent.
The committee, together with BNM, also reiterated the commitment to promote a conducive financial market environment and would continue to work with market participants in forging the way forward, it said.