KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit continued its downtrend to open lower against the US dollar on Friday after the greenback continued to strengthen on encouraging economic data, an economist said.
At 9 am, the local unit fell to 4.6630/6670 versus the greenback compared to 4.6525/6580 at Thursday’s close.
ActivTrades trader, Dyogenes Rodrigues Diniz said that the US dollar’s upward movement was driven by the higher-than-expected United States (US) Existing Home Sales data.
“The report helps to gauge the strength of the US housing market and is a key indicator of overall economic strength, and the strong reading helped lift the dollar further,” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist and social finance head Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid noted that major central banks across the globe have continued their hawkish stance on interest rate hikes to soften inflation.
“We believe a downward trajectory can be expected for the ringgit against the US dollar throughout the day,” he said.
In the meantime, the ringgit was traded higher against a basket of major currencies.
It was slightly higher versus the British pound at 5.9439/9490 from 5.9496/9567 at yesterday’s close, rose against the Japanese yen to 3.2588/2618 from 3.2776/2817 and strengthened vis-a-vis the euro to 5.1083/1127 from 5.1182/1243 previously.
However, the local note traded mostly lower against other Asean currencies.
The ringgit went up against the Singapore dollar to 3.4677/4709 versus 3.4697/4740 at Thursday’s close, but declined against the Thai baht to 13.2796/2978 from 13.2720/2934 yesterday.
It also dropped against the Philippines’ peso to 8.39/8.40 from 8.36/8.38 at the close yesterday, and lower versus the Indonesian rupiah to 312.0/312.5 from 311.3/311.9 previously. – Bernama