A customer counts her ringgit notes outside a money changer at the central business district in Singapore in this August 25, 2015 file photo. Malaysia's ringgit jumped more than 5 percent to a five-week high on October 7, 2015 on stop-loss dollar selling and higher local stocks. The ringgit, the worst performing Asian currency so far this year, surged as much as 5.2 percent to 4.1600 per dollar, its strongest since Sept 1. REUTERS/Edgar Su/Files

Malaysia: Ringgit opens flat against US$ on wait-and-see mode

  • Jan 24, 2022

KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit opened flat against the US dollar today as investors opted for a wait-and-see attitude on the latest economic assessment by the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, an analyst said.

At 9 am, the local note stood at 4.1840/1875 versus the greenback from 4.1840/1870 at Friday’s close.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said it is a week of FOMC meeting which will be held on Jan 25 and 26, that brings in cautious sentiment.

“Perhaps it’s going to be a hawkish tone, given the improvement in the economy and signs of inflationary pressures which is quite persistent,” he told Bernama.

As such, he expects the domestic note to trade in a narrow range of RM4.18-RM4.19 today.

Overall, the local note was traded mostly lower against a basket of other major currencies except the British pound, rising to 5.6706/6753 from 5.6764/6805 at Friday’s close.

The ringgit opened lower versus the euro to 4.7442/7482 from 4.7434/7468, slipped against the Singapore dollar to 3.1101/1132 from 3.1096/1121, and dropped against the Japanese yen to 3.6753/6787 from 3.6715/6741 previously. – Bernama