Ringgit to trade cautiously against US dollar next week

KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit is expected to trade cautiously against the US dollar next week, influenced by mixed internal and external factors, especially uncertainties in the US market, dealers said.
Affin Hwang Investment Bank Vice-President/Head of Retail Research, Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan, said the local currency may be influenced by external factors, including heavy global stock market sell-off during the week.
He said the sell-off sparked concern among investors and they shifted from riskier assets to safe havens, and this resulted in the local unit to retreat from last week's gain.
"For next week, the ringgit is expected to move around 3.900 level against the greenback," he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, another dealer said, the ringgit would also be influenced by the Malaysia's full-year gross domestic product (GDP) growth data, which was scheduled to be announced next Wednesday.
"Some analysts projected the 2017 GDP to grow by 5.8% compared to 4.2% in 2016," he said.
The ringgit started the week lower against the US dollar, as the greenback benefited from the positive jobs data released a week before.
However, the US dollar experienced a minor technical correction on Tuesday, which resulted in the local currency to recover some lost ground, before completely rebounded on Wednesday, as investors were concerned over the heavy sell-off in the global stock markets.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the local note finished at 3.9370/9410 against the greenback from 3.8850/8880 the previous week.
The ringgit was, however, mixed against a basket of major currencies.
It declined against the Singapore dollar to 2.9604/9643 from 2.9575/9618 the previous week and depreciated against the yen to 3.6096/6143 from 3.5354/5387 last week.
However, the local unit went up against the euro to 4.8279/8344 from 4.8508/8553 previously and strengthened against the British pound to 5.4795/4859 from 5.5229/5283 last week. — Bernama