KUALA LUMPUR, July 25 — The ringgit ended almost flat against the US dollar on Monday as investors remained in a wary mode amid the volatile market, said an analyst.
At 6pm, the local currency stood at 4.4510/4540 versus the greenback from Friday’s close of 4.4515/4545.
OANDA Asia Pacific senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley said Asian currencies remained under pressure against the greenback ahead of the United States (US) Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting and earnings season.
“We expect volatility in Asian currencies to increase as the week continues while we get more inputs from the US FOMC meeting and the US earnings data,” he said.
On the home front, the Department of Statistics Malaysia announced Malaysia’s leading index (LI) rebounded 2.2 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to 111.2 points in May 2022, up from a y-o-y contraction of 0.5 per cent in April 2022 (110.8 points), indicating a positive economic outlook in the months to come.
The coincident index (CI) — which reflects the current state of the economy — grew 6.4 per cent y-o-y in May 2022 from 5.3 per cent y-o-y in April 2022.
Meanwhile, the ringgit traded weaker against a basket of other major currencies.
The local currency dipped against the Singapore dollar to 3.2149/2175 from 3.2011/2038 at Friday’s close and fell versus the British pound to 5.3621/3657 from 5.3187/3222 previously.
It also declined versus the Japanese yen to 3.2654/2678 from 3.2389/2413 at the end of last week and depreciated vis-à-vis the euro to 4.5574/5605 from 4.5201/5231.
— Bernama
