KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 28 — The ringgit climbed against the US dollar at the opening today, despite some strength gained by the greenback from the rising US Dollar Index, which rose 0.07 per cent to 96.085 points amid thin liquidity in the markets, an analyst said.
At 9 am, the local note rose to 4.1810/1840 versus the greenback from 4.1815/1850 at Monday’s close.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the US dollar also appears to be rising against the euro, Japanese yen and British pound.
“The performance of risky assets such as equities has been commendable with benchmark indices like DJIAc S&P500 and Nasdaq were all up after the Christmas holiday, suggesting that a risk-on mode has become prevalent,” he told Bernama.
Similarly, he said in the commodity space, Brent crude was higher by 3.68 per cent at US$78.94 per barrel.
“Judging from this, the ringgit looks quite constructive,” he said.
However, Mohd Afzanizam expects the domestic unit to trade in a narrow range after the currency broke its immediate support at RM4.1862 yesterday.
“As such, the ringgit look sets to linger around RM4.1800 today,” he added.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded mostly lower against a basket of other major currencies, except for the Japanese yen which appreciated to 3.6388/6417 from 3.6462/6496 at Monday’s close.
The local unit fell against the British pound to 5.6184/6225 from 5.6040/6087 yesterday, depreciated versus the euro to 4.7371/7405 from 4.7284/7324, and shrank vis-a-vis the Singapore dollar to 3.0838/0865 from 3.0789/0820 previously.
— Bernama
