Monday 6 February 2017

Ringgit Malaysia. Counting Stars

Is the massive 2014 hit for One Republic, taken from the album Native.

Malaysia, it seems is suffering from a lack of foreign investors desdain for investment into NATIVE bonds and equities, because in Bank Negara Malaysia's zeal to curb the NDF market, it has sacrificed a great Kos Melepas.

This has left us, the natives, to be counting stars as to when will the sun once again shine on us. Bloomberg has the story. Read below :

Malaysia’s crackdown on currency speculators has come at a cost. While it successfully reduced ringgit volatility, it is threatening to discourage overseas investors.

The central bank’s steps to curb trading in offshore non-deliverable forwards last year has made it harder for global funds to hedge their exposure to Malaysia, according to Macquarie Bank Ltd. Global funds cut holdings of Malaysian debt by a combined 25.2 billion ringgit ($5.7 billion) in November and December, the biggest two-month outflow since 2008, central bank data show.

The difference between onshore and forward prices for the ringgit jumped to a record in November, spurring the central bank to crack down on NDF trading. Since then, the currency’s volatility has dwindled to the lowest in four years, while the ringgit slid to the weakest since 1998 even as oil prices showed signs of recovery and the central bank dismissed speculation it was about to impose capital controls.

“The initial imposition of the NDF restrictions did lead to talk of the potential of further restrictions and even capital account closure,” said Julian Wee, a senior market strategist at National Australia Bank in Singapore. “These sort of measures tend to lead to a loss of confidence in the market, which was already jittery. However, the overall direction and movement in the dollar-ringgit has been due to the overall dollar trend in addition to BNM’s inability to resist it.”

A measure of one-month volatility for the ringgit has tumbled since mid-November when the central bank warned foreign banks not to engage in NDF-related transactions, turning the currency into emerging Asia’s least volatile from the most. Volatility dropped to 2.5 percent last week, the lowest since December 2012.

The ringgit has fallen almost 2 percent since Nov. 15, the region’s worst performer after the yen, and reached 4.5002 per dollar on Jan. 4, the weakest since the Asian financial crisis. The currency will slide to 4.54 by mid-year, according to a Bloomberg survey