KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 — Short-term rates are expected to be steady next week as Bank Negara Malaysia is set to intervene in the money market.

The central bank intervened on a daily basis this week to mop up excess funds from the system by conducting conventional, Al-Wadiah, repo, Commodity Murabahah Programme tenders, and range-maturity auctions. For the week just-ended, the overnight rate was at 3.21 per cent while the one-, two- and three-week rates were pegged at 3.27 per cent, 3.30 per cent and 3.34 per cent, respectively.

The underlying three-month Kuala Lumpur Interbank Offered Rate was fixed at 3.73 per cent.

Yesterday (Friday), the total liquidity surplus in the conventional system was reduced to RM17.445 billion from an earlier estimate of RM25.925 billion while in the Islamic system, the liquidity surplus was reduced to RM2.506 billion from an earlier forecast of RM5.955 billion.

Following this, the central bank issued a late conventional tender for RM17.50 billion and a late Al-Wadiah tender for RM2.50 billion, both for three-day money. — Bernama