SINGAPORE: Malaysias ringgit hit a more than three-week high on Wednesday, tracking rallies in oil prices and commodity currencies, while emerging Asian currencies rose on growing risk appetite. The ringgit jumped as much as 2.3 percent to 3.5460 per dollar, its strongest since Jan. 12, as investors scrambled for the unit to cover short positions in the second-worst performing emerging Asian currency so far this year. Malaysian stocks rose 1.3 percent, well outperforming regional peers. Government bond prices gained with the 10-year yield down to 3.796 percent, its lowest since Nov. 12. Oil prices advanced about 20 percent over the last four sessions, easing concerns that lower crude prices may hurt Malaysias current account surplus and widen its fiscal deficit, given its status as a net oil exporter. The Malaysian currency rose on demand related to the daily fixing, while investors bought the unit against the neighbouring Singapore dollar. The ringgit found further support from catch-up plays after the local financial markets were closed on Monday and Tuesday when oil prices rose. œIf oil continues to rebound, its plausible that the MYR could retrace further, given the hitherto overloaded positioning, said Emmanuel Ng, a foreign exchange strategist with OCBC Bank in Singapore. Still, he doubted if the ringgits rebound could sustain, saying: œThis crude move in the last few days may simply be position adjustments. Nothing has changed fundamentally. Oil prices retreated in Asia on Wednesday. Other emerging Asian currencies rose as risk sentiment improved further. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras sought to reassure international partners that Athens did not want to create divisions in Europe with its call for a new debt accord and said he was open to listening to alternative proposals.
To continue reading the rest of the article, click here