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United Arab Emirates foreign exchange reserves surged 50 per cent in November, the most in at least 18 years, to $75 billion, a central bank treasury official said on Thursday.

That was the same month UAE Central Bank Governor Sultan Nasser Al Suweidi said the world’s fifth-largest oil producer was under pressure to drop its peg to the dollar and might consider linking to a basket instead.

Reserves jumped from $50.4 billion the month before, the biggest rise since data going back to 1990. The central bank official did not want to be identified.

-Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR, April 9 (Bernama) — The ringgit was in a firm position against the U.S. dollar at close today on strong demand for the local unit as the greenback lost its attractiveness in overseas markets, a dealer said.

At 5pm, the ringgit was traded stronger against the U.S. dollar at 3.1750/1785 from 3.1880/1900 at yesterday’s closing.

The dealer indicated that today’s steady ringgit movement against the U.S. dollar was due to market players shifting their positions towards the Asian markets following growing negative news over the U.S. economy.

“Investors prefer to invest in Asian countries, including Malaysia, where interest rates are expected to trend higher, so they can potentially reap higher yields,” she added.

According to the dealer, some investors also kept to the sidelines to await tomorrow’s rate decisions by the Bank of England and the European Central Bank as well as the meeting of the group of rich nations or G7 on Friday.

The meeting will be attended by finance ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the U.S. to discuss the global economy amid turmoil in the credit markets, including the weakness of the greenback.

The dealer is also expecting the greenback to continue to decline on expectations of further cuts in the U.S. interest rates at the Fed policy meeting on April 29-30.

“Another cut may trigger another round of sell-off on the greenback as investors are losing their confidence in the U.S. markets. This is likely to support the ringgit and it could break into the 3.15 level,” she added.

The ringgit was also traded higher today against other major currencies, rising against the Singapore dollar to 2.3007/3040 from 2.3078/3113 at yesterday’s closing and appreciating against the Japanese yen at 3.1044/1067 from 3.1224/1256.

Compared with the euro, the ringgit was up, to 4.9965/9014 from 5.0233/0271 yesterday and also against the pound sterling at 6.2597/2649 from 6.3001/3054.

BERNAMA

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The dollar and pound remained weaker against other major currencies after a report from the International Monetary Fund slashed global economic growth forecasts, particularly for the United States and United Kingdom. Read more

At the Islamic Business Law session during the recently concluded conference of the Section on Business Law of the Nigerian Bar Association, participants discussed how to strengthen the national economy through providing Shari’ah compliant business solutions in the arena of Islamic financial services. OLUFEMI SUNMONU who coordinated the session reports
Read more

The MOU sets the stage for the cross-border marketing and distribution of Islamic funds.

Hong Kong’s Securities & Futures Commission has signed an Islamic finance pact with the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA).

The memorandum of understanding calls for mutual cooperation on capacity building and human capital development in Islamic finance, as well as the promotion and development of their respective Islamic capital market segments. Read more

Siddique Islam - AHN South Asia Correspondent

Dhaka, Bangladesh (AHN) - The central bank of Bangladesh on Thursday sold more the U.S. dollar as a part of its ongoing intervention to keep the foreign exchange market stable, officials say in Dhaka. The Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country’s central bank, sold US$20 million at prevailing market rate to two commercial banks on the day to meet the growing demand for the currency.

The central bank of Bangladesh started intervening in the inter-bank foreign exchange market through selling of U.S. dollar in October, 2007 aiming to keep the market stable. The BB has since sold over $520 million to the commercial banks as part of its intervention in the market, the central bank officials confirmed.

The central bank is continuously selling the U.S. dollar to the commercial banks giving priority to help settlement of import payment bills for essential items including food grains and petroleum products, they noted. They also said the central bank will continue its intervention in the inter-bank foreign exchange market to help the commercial banks settle their import bills for essentials.

Meanwhile, the money market was active, as banks and financial institutions borrowed cash at high rates from the inter-bank market to meet urgent requirements of their clients, treasury officials said.

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Redistribution, republication. syndication, rewriting or broadcast is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AHN.

This is an excerpt from a Market Insight comment that Elliott Wave International’s Senior Currency Strategist Jim Martens posted for his Currency Specialty Service readers on April 1: Read more

The ringgit opened higher against the U.S. dollar Monday on strong buying of the local unit amid a weaker greenback, a dealer said.

At 9.00 am, the ringgit was traded at 3.1860/1890 against the U.S. dollar, up from 3.1920/1940 at last Friday’s closing.

The dealer attributed the ringgit’s uptrend against the greenback this morning to market players’ reaction to the bearish U.S. employment data released last Friday.

The latest U.S. employment data reported the biggest monthly drop in jobs in five years, raising concern that the world’s largest economy might already be in the early stage of recession.

“The ringgit is likely to move within a tight range of between 3.18 and 3.20 against the greenback this week as there is no major events expected to stimulate the local currency,” added the dealer.

Against other major currencies, the ringgit was traded mixed.

It depreciated against the Singapore dollar at 2.3052/3084 from 2.3045/3090 last Friday’s closing and it weakened against the Japanese yen at 3.1183/1216 from 3.1155/1187 previously.

Compared with the pound sterling, the ringgit appreciated at 6.3414/3490 from 6.3827/3896 and it also strengthened against the euro at 5.0004/0061 from 5.0137/0178 previously.

– BERNAMA

The dollar rallied against the yen on Monday, making up for losses suffered after a weak U.S. employment report, as traders focused on fund allocations by Japanese investors at the start of a new financial year. Read more

Dubai-based Islamic mortgage company Amlak Finance said first quarter profit rose more than five-fold to 126 million dirhams ($34.31m). Revenue almost tripled. Revenue in the three months to March 31 was 270m dirhams, compared with 102n dirhams in the year-earlier period, the lender said, its second-biggest quarterly profit ever. Read more