KUALA LUMPUR, March 17 — Short-term interbank rates closed steady today on Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) operations to absorb surplus liquidity from the financial system.

Liquidity in the conventional system eased to RM41.02 billion from RM45.70 billion this morning while for Islamic funds, it dropped to RM19.23 billion from RM22.46 billion this morning.

Earlier, the central bank called for three conventional money market tenders, a Qard-Islamic range maturity auction tender, a repo tender, and a reverse repo render.

At 4 pm, the central bank called for a RM41.0 billion conventional money market tender and a RM18.1 billion Murabahah money market tender, both for one-day money.

The average Islamic overnight rate stood at 1.72 per cent, while the one-, two- and three-week rates stood at 1.78 per cent, 1.82 per cent, and 1.85 per cent, respectively. — Bernama