KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 — The ringgit further extended its weakness at the opening against the US dollar Tuesday, on firmer buying support for the greenback on elevated US bond yields, analysts said.
At 9am, the local note dropped to 4.1180/1230 against the US dollar from 4.1050/1100 at Monday’s close.
Axi chief global market strategist Stephen Innes said the US 10-year Treasury yields remained resilient, hovering around 1.6 per cent, as the US made further progress towards the massive US$1.9 trillion economic stimulus and Covid-19 relief package.
The ringgit, which is also reliant on the movement of oil prices, was also affected by the news of a drone attack on the Saudi oil infrastructure.
However, the attack had not resulted in any property loss.
After rising about 2.0 per cent earlier on Monday, benchmark Brent crude quickly sank back to the US$68 per barrel levels, a loss of about one per cent.
At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at US$68.41 per barrel.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was also traded mostly lower against other major currencies.
It eased against the Singapore dollar to 3.0479/0520 from 3.0434/0478 on Monday but slightly improved against the Japanese yen to 3.7752/7805 from 3.7810/7859.
The ringgit declined versus the British pound to 5.6882/6967 from 5.6772/6850 and marginally slipped against the euro to 4.8769/8833 from 4.8730/8802 yesterday.
— Bernama
