KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit trimmed its earlier gains to end lower against the US dollar today amid a firmer greenback despite softer US consumer price index (CPI) data, an analyst said.
At 6pm, the local note slid to 4.4615/4.4665 versus the greenback from Wednesday’s closing rate of 4.4565/4.4605.
Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist and social finance head Afzanizam Rashid said the US dollar has gained momentum regardless of April’s inflation rate coming in lower than expected.
“It seems that market participants were anxious about the global outlook as the restrictive monetary policy adopted by the Federal Reserve (Fed) and their counterparts in Europe might have an implication to growth.
“In that sense, there appears to be a risk-off mode taking place as reflected by the rising US Dollar index (DXY),” he told Bernama
At the close, the ringgit traded mostly higher against a basket of major currencies.
It appreciated against the euro to 4.8751/4.8805 from 4.8830/4.8874 at Wednesday’s close and improved vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.6161/5.6224 from 5.6254/5.6305, but went down against the Japanese yen to 3.3122/3.3161 from 3.2962/3.2994 yesterday.
At the same time, the local note traded mostly lower against Asean currencies.
It slipped to 3.3588/3.3628 against the Singapore dollar compared with 3.3563/3.3596 on Wednesday and declined versus the Indonesian rupiah to 302.9/303.5 from 302.4/302.8 yesterday.
However, the local note rose vis-a-vis the Thai baht to 13.2283/13.2482 from 13.2354/13.2528 and was flat against the Philippine pesos at 8.00/8.01.
