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Malaysia: Ringgit opens lower against US$ as attention shifts to safe haven currencies
KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit opened lower against the US dollar today, in line with most emerging Asian currencies, as investors shifted their attention towards the safe-haven currencies, said a dealer.
At 9.20am, the local currency stood at 4.1410/1430 versus the greenback compared to 4.1390/1420 at yesterday’s close.
The greenback according to him has continued its upward momentum from Monday after last week’s release of a solid US job data, which lowered the investors’ expectations of a US Federal Reserve interest rate cut.
The ringgit, however, traded mostly higher against a basket of major currencies.
It rose against the Japanese yen to 3.8040/8069 from 3.8158/8189 on Monday, but weakened versus the Singapore dollar to 3.0444/0463 from 3.0436/0463 and improved against the euro to 4.6437/6476 from 4.6473/6511 previously.
The local currency also traded higher against the pound at 5.1820/1854 from 5.1882/1937. – Bernama
Ambank research expects Bank Negara to maintain its overnight policy rate at 3% following today’s monetary policy meeting.
“We are of the view that the latest macro numbers are slightly encouraging that should allow BNM to adopt a ‘waitand-see’ attitude.
“On that note, we expect MYR to trade between our support level of 4.1253 and 4.1325 while our resistance is pinned at 4.1471 and 4.1535,” it said.
Meanwhile, the research house believes the market will be on the sidelines as it awaits US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell’s testimony to glean guidance and clues on the assessment of the US economy and monetary policy.
It noted that a deeper rate cut of 50bps by the Fed has tapered.
Source: https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2019/07/09/ringgit-opens-lower-against-us$-as-attention-shifts-to-safe-haven-currencies/#Fg9DwFr3lfKt0azl.99