KUALA LUMPUR, June 12 — The ringgit retreated against the US dollar in the early session today after four days of gains, weighed by the ongoing uncertainty in the global sentiment, a dealer said.
At 9 am today, the ringgit was quoted at 4.2775/2875 against the US dollar compared with 4.2430/2500 recorded at Thursday’s close.
A dealer said after putting on a strong performance earlier in the week, the ringgit looks particularly susceptible to the lower oil prices and struggling risk sentiment.
Key oil benchmarks, Brent crude slipped 3.50 per cent to US$37.20 per barrel today, while WTI crude fell 4.43 per cent to US$34.73 per barrel as concerns over the rising number of Covid-19 cases in some US states have dampened crude demand.
The greenback jumped 0.81 per cent to 96.733 boosted by improvements in several key indicators including initial jobless claims for the week ending June 6 which showed the jobless claims slowed down to 1.5 million from 1.9 million in the previous week.
At the opening, the ringgit was traded mostly higher against a basket of benchmark currencies.
However, the local note fell against the Singapore dollar to 3.0659/0741 from 3.0613/0675 on Thursday but appreciated versus the British pound to 5.3670/3812 from 5.3844/3954 yesterday.
The local currency strengthened against the Japanese yen to 3.0104/0205 from 3.9665/9742 and rose vis-a-vis the Euro to 4.8242/8372 from 4.8294/8382 previously.
— Bernama
