KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit retreated from yesterday’s gains to end lower against the greenback today, as traders turned risk-averse following the enforcement of the Movement Control Order (MCO) 3.0, a dealer said.
At 6 pm, the local currency weakened to 4.1200/1240 against the US dollar from Wednesday’s close of 4.1150/1200.
Bank Islam chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the ringgit lingered in a tight range against the greenback today despite the US Dollar Index (DXY) seeing a decline during the day.
He said that Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) had maintained the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) at 1.75 per cent at its third Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting today, but continued to suggest that risks to economic growth remained tilted on the downside.
“Given the MCO imposition in several key districts and in Kuala Lumpur, the risk of a slower recovery is quite imminent and may not be totally ruled out. This has led to the timid ringgit performance today,“ he told Bernama.
Going forward, he said data on the US labour market would be on investors’ radar this week, with the attention on the US nonfarm payroll (NFP) data to be released this Friday.
According to him, the ADP employment survey suggests that the US labour market in the private sector has been commendable, rising by 742,000 jobs in April from an increase of 565,000 in March, but the figure came in below the economists forecast of 800,000.
“All in all, we continued to see some good numbers coming out from the United States and this could have led to the tight range in the US dollar/ ringgit pair,“ he added.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was also traded lower against other major currencies.
It fell against the Singapore dollar to 3.0861/0903 from 3.0799/0848 on Wednesday and depreciated versus the euro to 4.9625/9690 from 4.9392/9461.
The local note slipped versus the yen to 3.7750/7790 from 3.7628/7677 yesterday and weakened vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.7330/7402 from 5.7174/7256. — Bernama
