KUALA LUMPUR (July 15): The ringgit extended Thursday’s (July 14) losses to open marginally lower against the US dollar on Friday as more investors shifted towards safe havens due to the cautious global economic outlook, dealers said.
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At 9.05am, the local currency had slipped to 4.4450/4485 versus the greenback from Thursday’s close at 4.4435/4450.
ActivTrades trader Dyogenes Rodrigues Diniz said the greenback rose against the ringgit on Friday, on the back of the release of Producer Price Index (PPI) data that measures inflation from a business perspective.
The PPI came in much higher than expected, reinforcing worries over rampant inflation in the US. This leads investors to think that the US Federal Reserve will have to act even more severely to contain the price rise. Initial unemployment claims data also came in worse than expected.
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“From a technical point of view, the USD/MYR pair is at the highest level since the beginning of the pandemic. A break above 4.4500 could make room for further increase,” he told Bernama on Friday.
The local unit was traded mostly higher against a basket of major currencies.
It appreciated against the British pound to 5.2580/2621 from 5.2762/2780 on Thursday, increased versus the euro to 4.4543/4578 from 4.4635/4650, and higher vis-a-vis the Singapore dollar at 3.1664/1694 from 3.1717/1732 on Thursday.
The ringgit, however, weakened against the Japanese yen to 3.2011/2040 from 3.2009/2022 previously.-BERNAMA