KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): The ringgit remained higher versus the US dollar at Wednesday’s opening on moderate buying interest amid a drop in the greenback against the G-10 currencies.
At 9am, the local currency stood at 4.0510/0550 compared with the US dollar from Tuesday’s close of 4.0570/0600.
A dealer said it was lucky that the ringgit found strength and did not echo the greenback’s momentum.
“However, there are concerns over the velocity of last week’s US yield rise and near term uncertainty over oil prices, and the possibility of the People’s Bank of China delicately throttling down on policy support is a worrying sign for Asian currencies growth prospects.
“I suspect the ringgit may continue to ‘mark time’ ahead of the OPEC meeting, as local traders will be looking for some oil price directional clues later in the week,” Axi chief global market strategist Stephen Innes told Bernama.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded mostly lower against other major currencies except with the Japanese yen, rising to 3.7938/7986 from 3.7948/7987 on Tuesday.
The ringgit fell against the Singapore dollar to 3.0463/0500 from 3.0433/0462, weakened versus the British pound to 5.6552/6612 from 5.6258/6304 and depreciated vis-a-vis the euro to 4.8956/9021 from 4.8708/8748.- The Edge Market