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 higher on recovering oil sentiment

  • Dec 22, 2020

KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit opened higher against the US dollar today on the back of improving crude oil prices.

At 9.07am, the ringgit was quoted at 4.0470/0520 versus the greenback compared with 4.0490/0530 on Monday.

Axi Chief Global Market Strategist Stephen Innes said the ringgit could claw back some losses on recovering oil market sentiment.

“However, year-end position squaring proclivities could be the order of the day as the forex markets become very much transactional rather than speculative at this time of year,” he said.

The benchmark Brent crude was priced at US$50.79 per barrel at the opening.

Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded lower against other major currencies.

It marginally trimmed against the Singapore dollar to 3.0353/0402 from 3.0266/0305 at Monday’s close and eased against the euro to 4.9495/9568 from 4.9288/9353.

The local note depreciated against the Japanese yen to 3.9151/9210 from 3.9027/9076 on Monday and weakened against the British pound to 5.4299/4382 from 5.3520/3589. – Bernama

Source: https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2020/12/22/ringgit-opens-higher-on-recovering-oil-sentiment