Klang Valley ICU Beds Near Capacity, No Decision On Tighter Restrictions Yet

Spot USD/MYR has added 97 pips so far, but remains some way off Friday's peak, last changing hands at MYR4.0977. The move seems driven by Friday's after-hours gains in the greenback, albeit difficult local Covid-19 situation may have generated some selling pressure on the ringgit.

• Active Covid-19 cases eclipsed 30,000 on Sunday, with the number of ICU patients reaching a new high. The Health Ministry tweeted that "healthcare capacity in the Klang Valley (Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya) is at a worrying level," with 70% of ICU beds occupied.
• Defence Min Ismail Sabri denied source reports circulated by local media outlets that the gov't were planning to reimpose MCO in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor and Sarawak from today. He noted that the National Security Council has not yet met to review current restrictions.
• Malaysia & Singapore agreed to allow movement across their border on compassionate grounds and for emergency reasons, but seemed to put talks on wider border re-opening on hold. PM Muhyiddin cancelled his trip to Singapore, during which he was expected to discuss gradual resumption of cross-border travel with his local counterpart.
• Malaysian Markit M'fing PMI comes out at the bottom of the hour. Later in the week, focus moves to industrial output/m'fing sales (Thursday) & foreign reserves (Friday).
• Meanwhile, BNM delivers their latest monetary policy decision on Thursday, but are not expected to move interest rates.
• Bulls need a clearance of the 50-DMA at MYR4.1086 before targeting the 200-DMA/Apr 21 high at MYR4.1192/4.1225. Bears look for a dip through Friday's low of MYR4.0877 before targeting the 100-DMA at MYR4.0770.