Ringgit Malaysia dah jadi "Best Performing Currency" sekarang ni

G-Pitts · Post time 1-4-2016 07:20 PM

Malaysia’s oil exports have turned the ringgit into Asia’s best-performing currency even as analysts say it’s the least attractive.
Forecasters are predicting the ringgit will weaken 8.4 percent this year for the biggest drop in the region, and some of them even see it falling beyond a 17-year low reached in September. The bearish calls peaked around the end of January, when Swiss investigators said a probe into state-owned 1Malaysia Development Bhd. revealed about $4 billion may have gone missing.
The ringgit has confounded those calls by surging 10.1 percent this quarter, the most in 43 years. Oil’s gains have been a big part of that -- crude accounts for 22 percent of Malaysian government revenue and the nation is Asia’s only major net exporter -- along with tax increases and spending cuts. Now 1MDB is adding to the upswing, with the state-investment fund agreeing to sell energy assets and pledging to repay 6 billion ringgit ($1.5 billion) of debt in the coming weeks.

“The ringgit is going to be one of the outperformers in the region in 2016,” said Divya Devesh, the Singapore-based foreign-exchange strategist for Asia at Standard Chartered Plc. “We are looking for a good rebound in oil prices. The market is still short ringgit so we might see continued covering of positions, which should also be supportive.”
As the Federal Reserve’s willingness to be gradual in raising interest rates drove emerging-market currencies toward their best month on record, the ringgit came to the fore, reaching the highest in almost eight months at 3.8948 per dollar on Thursday.

Standard Chartered, which is one of the most bullish of 27 forecasts compiled by Bloomberg, upgraded its second-quarter estimate to 4 per dollar from 4.30 on March 22. That’s based on projections Brent crude will rise above $60 a barrel by year-end and the Fed will keep interest rates on hold for 2016. And it compares with prognoses from three strategists for it to weaken this year past the level of 4.48 per dollar that it touched in September.
The ringgit’s climb has come even as Prime Minister Najib Razak faces calls from former leader Mahathir Mohamad to quit over $681 million that appeared in his accounts before the last election in 2013.
Strategists have trimmed their bearish ringgit forecasts by about 4 percent for the three months through June from the end of January, with the currency’s outlook largely resting on the sustainability of the rally in oil, gas and petrochemicals, which along with palm oil make up the biggest proportion of Malaysian shipments abroad after electronics. The nation’s exports grew at less than half the 10-year average in 2015, when the currency’s slide was compounded by the political scandal and 1MDB’s debt.
Oil BottomingMacquarie Bank Ltd., the most accurate forecaster for the ringgit last year in Bloomberg rankings, has a June 30 estimate of 3.90 per dollar. Nizam Idris, the bank’s head of foreign-exchange and fixed-income strategy in Singapore, said that’s more to do with potential weakness in the greenback than Malaysia’s fundamentals. The projection compares with the 4.24 median estimate in Bloomberg’s survey.
“Broadly, we feel that oil prices have bottomed and that is the key indicator,” said Mirza Baig, Singapore-based head of Asia Pacific currency and interest-rate strategy at BNP Paribas SA, who sees the ringgit continuing to trade around 4 per dollar. “The other positive factor is the resumption of inflows to emerging markets.”
RBC BearishEven after analysts raised their expectations for the currency, almost all are still calling for it to drop by year-end and Royal Bank of Canada is projecting a slide to 4.60 per dollar by June 30. That would exceed the low reached in September, when the Swiss announced a freeze on assets linked to 1MDB and the New York Times reported that a federal grand jury in the U.S. was investigating allegations of corruption linked to Najib. The prime minister and the state firm have consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Najib introduced a 6 percent goods and services tax in 2015 and also maintainedhis deficit-reduction target in January. The growth forecast was cut to 4 percent to 4.5 percent from as much as 5 percent.
1MDB raised 9.83 billion ringgit via the sale of its energy assets to China General Nuclear Power Corp. in March. The state-investment company won’t have any more short-term debt and bank loans after the debt repayments, President Arul Kanda said in an interview in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

Najib maintains that the funds he received as a donation from Saudi Arabia’s royal family weren’t used for private benefit. Malaysia’s Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali cleared the premier of any wrongdoing in January, saying Najib returned $620 million in August 2013 that wasn’t utilized, without specifying what the rest of the money was used for.
Former premier Mahathir and ex-deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin were among those who addressed more than 2,000 people at a convention center in the capital Kuala Lumpur on Sunday as part of a campaign to oust Najib.
“I would think a lot of the stability in the political situation has already been priced in,” said Trang Thuy Le, a Hong Kong-based macro strategist at Credit Suisse Group AG, which raised its three-month ringgit forecast in March to 4 per dollar from 4.30. “Given the dovish tone of the Fed, we think that the dollar will likely continue to drift in the coming months and, because of the energy prices, Malaysian exports could be more resilient than we thought initially.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/ar ... s-oil-eclipses-1mdb

Nampaknya ringgit makin pulih walaupun macam2 "skandal" yang Najib buat. Kenapa berita macam ni tidak dihebohkan? Kalau ringgit turun bukan main cepat lagi jadi berita viral. Hari ni ringgit ditutup 3.8905 berbanding dollar amerika.

wana89 · Post time 1-4-2016 07:22 PM

3.6 baru legs sikit

kelapaparut · Post time 1-4-2016 07:43 PM

Kebetulan je ringgit nak bagus, it doesnt mean we will support pemerintahan najib and the umno,it just coincidence harge minyak naik

znorm · Post time 1-4-2016 07:55 PM

Yang penting bersyukur...
”Sesungguhnya jika kamu bersyukur, niscaya Aku akan menambah nikmat kepadamu, tetapi jika kamu mengingkari (nikmat-Ku),maka pasti azab-Ku sangat berat.”(QS.ibrahim [14]: 7)

1Apr16 · Post time 1-4-2016 07:56 PM

Edited by 1Apr16 at 1-4-2016 07:58 PM

Alhamdulillaaaah

flying_cow · Post time 1-4-2016 07:58 PM

So nak kena puji Najib ke sis?

sabbath_shalom · Post time 1-4-2016 08:01 PM

So kita kene sokong UMNO lah next pru

G-Pitts · Post time 1-4-2016 08:02 PM

flying_cow replied at 1-4-2016 07:58 PM
So nak kena puji Najib ke sis?

Masa ringgit jatuh kena kutuk, masa ringgit naik ni ko rasa?

blackwidowbae · Post time 1-4-2016 08:05 PM

Tahniah jibbon

G-Pitts · Post time 1-4-2016 08:05 PM

kelapaparut replied at 1-4-2016 07:43 PM
Kebetulan je ringgit nak bagus, it doesnt mean we will support pemerintahan najib and the umno,it ju ...

Masa ringgit jatuh hari tu bukan kebetulan pula harga minyak dunia pun jatuh kan. Masa ringgit naik ni tiba2 kebetulan pula harga minyak punca ringgit naik....