KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 — The ringgit closed marginally lower against the US dollar today on lack of catalyst, despite the increase in crude oil prices.
At 6pm, the local note eased to 4.1160/1185 against the greenback from 4.1130/1150 at Monday’s close.
Analysts said sentiment for the ringgit remained soft on the back of recent news by the Statistics Department which reported that April 2021 saw Malaysia’s inflation increase 4.7 per cent from April 2020 – the highest year-on-year increase since 2018.
Meanwhile, the decline in the ringgit was however limited by the easier US dollar as markets were also awaiting the US Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) monetary policy decision on Wednesday, which is likely to provide direction for the interest rates and US dollar.
“As the US dollar is the most traded currency in the world, any important decision is likely to impact other economies, stocks and currencies,” said ActivTrades trader Dyogenes Rodrigues Diniz.
At the time of writing, the benchmark Brent crude was 0.48 per cent higher at US$73.21 per barrel.
At the close, the ringgit was traded mixed against a basket of major currencies.
It strengthened vis-a-vis the yen to 3.7364/7390 from 3.7500/7522 at Monday’s closing and slightly improved against the British pound to 5.7933/7968 from 5.7952/7980.
Against the euro, the local currency marginally declined to 4.9898/9929 from 4.9817/9841 yesterday and dropped against the Singapore dollar to 3.1024/1046 from 3.0997/1014 previously.
— Bernama
