Ringgit slips against USD amid emerging markets slowdown

KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit opened slightly lower against the US dollar today on lack of demand.

At 9 am, the local unit traded at 4.0770/0820 against the greenback from 4.0760/0800 recorded yesterday.

A dealer said low demand for the ringgit was due to the strengthening US dollar, as emerging markets continued to face a slowdown in economic growth.

“Overall global market sentiment is still sluggish amid higher crude oil prices,” he added.

As at 9.15am, the benchmark Brent crude was 0.37 per cent higher at US$67.35 per barrel.

Meanwhile, the ringgit traded mostly higher against a basket of other major currencies.

It declined against the Singapore dollar to 3.0075/0117 from Thursday’s close of 3.0055/0100, but rose against the British pound to 5.3229/3315 from 5.3542/3607.

The ringgit strengthened against the Japanese yen to 3.6766/6821 from 3.6937/6983 and improved versus the euro to 4.5793/5853 from 4.5871/5937. – Bernama

Ambank research notes external factors such as the weakening of the Turkish Lira ahead of the country’s election on March 31.

The research house also pointed towards a dramatic decrease in the country’s international reserves ending March 22, which represented a US$10bil drop to US$24.7bil.

Meanwhile, oil prices were also in the spotlight as US President Donald Trump issued a Twitter complaint overnight over crude prices getting too high.

“Hence we foresee MYR to trade between our support level of 4.0604 and 4.0679 while our resistance is pinned at 4.0848 and 4.0931 against the USD,” said Ambank.

Source : TheStar