KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit closed marginally weaker against the US dollar on Monday on concerns over the continuously high number of daily Covid-19 cases in the country, which recorded 15,764 cases today, said an analyst.
At 6 pm, the local note stood to 4.2240/2255 versus the greenback from last Friday’s close of 4.2190/2220.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said the coronavirus cases seemed to outweigh the encouraging increase in the daily vaccination doses, which have been maintained at around 500,000 doses per day recently.
“The weakness in the ringgit also coincided with the softer Brent crude oil price amid dampened demand prospects due to a possible disruption in the global economic recovery due to the highly infectious Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus,” he told Bernama.
At press time, the benchmark Brent crude oil price decreased 1.33 per cent to US$74.41 per barrel.
Meanwhile, at the close, the local note was traded mostly lower against a basket of major currencies.
The ringgit slipped against the Singapore dollar to 3.1256/1272 from last Friday’s close of 3.1189/1216, depreciated vis-a-vis the euro to 5.0240/0262 from 5.0181/0216, and weakened against the Japanese yen to 3.8554/8571 from 3.8502/8529.
The local unit, however, strengthened against the British pound to 5.8794/8815 from 5.8935/8977 previously. — Bernama
