KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit opened lower against the US dollar in the early session today as investors remain cautious on the global outlook despite a slightly weaker greenback, an analyst said.
At 9 am, the local note fell to 4.5950/6000 versus the greenback compared with Friday’s closing of 4.5745/5785.
The market was closed yesterday for the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s official birthday holiday.
SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes said the US dollar was marginally weaker due to the lower-than-expected ISM Services purchasing managers index (PMI) data and hopes of a softer interest rate hike by the United States Federal Reserve.
However, he noted that despite the rising Caixin PMI data in May, the Chinese yuan remained weak due to the negative market sentiment around China’s growth.
“We think the risks are skewed towards further yuan weakness unless there is a more robust and credible policy response other than the current property measures,“ he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded higher against a basket of major currencies.
It went up to 3.2927/2965 against the Japanese yen from 3.2957/2989 at Friday’s closing, rose against the euro to 4.9240/9294 from 4.9254/9297 and appreciated versus the British pound 5.7139/7201 from 5.7323/7373 last week.
At the same time, the local note was traded mixed against other Asean currencies.
The ringgit rose against the Thai baht to 13.2029/2222 from Friday’s close of 13.2402/2591 and was slightly higher against the Philippines’ peso at 8.17/8.19 from 8.18/8.19.
However, it slid against the Singapore dollar to 3.4055/4094 from 3.4026/4059 last week and weakened against the Indonesian rupiah to 308.5/309.0 from 305.0/305.5 previously. -Bernama
