KUALA LUMPUR, May 13 — The ringgit reversed yesterday’s gains to open easier against the US dollar this morning ahead of the country’s first-quarter gross domestic product results announcement.
At 9.05 am, the local unit was quoted at 4.3350/3450 against the greenback from 4.3270/3370 registered at 6 pm Tuesday.
Bank Negara Malaysia is expected to announce the first-quarter GDP later today, with growth projected to be between 0.8 per cent and more than 4.0 per cent.
AxiCorp’s chief market strategist Stephen Innes said with risk trading poorly in the United States’ markets and falling oil prices, the ringgit would struggle for traction today.
“However, weakness should remain capped as local sentiment would stay tethered to the People’s Bank of China policy, which could ramp up considerably in May.
“Still, the fear of secondary (Covid-19) virus outbreaks and Australia-China tensions would continue to sully the near-term regional landscape,” he said in a note today.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded lower against other major currencies, except against the British pound, where it rose to 5.3164/3300 from 5.3356/3464 on Tuesday.
The local currency depreciated against the Singapore dollar to 3.0588/0670 from 3.0530/0597 yesterday, weakened versus the Japanese yen to 4.0438/0543 from 4.0247/0326 and fell vis-a-vis the euro to 4.7048/7174 from 4.6814/6909 previously.
— Bernama
