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 remains bullish ahead of US GDP release

  • Nov 24, 2021

KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit slipped further to open lower against the US dollar on Wednesday as the greenback maintains its bullish move ahead of the United States’ (US) economic data release, an analyst said.

At 9 am, the local note weakened to 4.1990/2015 versus the greenback from 4.1970/2000 at yesterday’s close.

ActiveTrades trader Dyogenes Rodrigues Diniz said the US gross domestic product (GDP) data and Jobless Claims due to be released later today would likely dictate direction for the dollar.

“Should this reading comes in lower than expected, it could accelerate the uptrend in the US dollar against the ringgit.

“From a technical point of view, as the US dollar to the ringgit rate has just started to break the resistance at RM4.1900, the way is clear for it to go up to RM4.2400,” he told Bernama.

In the meantime, Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid opined that there is a chance that the ringgit could stage a slight rebound today as Brent crude oil price has reverted to above US$80 per barrel.

At press time, the benchmark Brent crude oil price fell 0.12 per cent to US$82.21 per barrel.

Meanwhile, at opening, the local note was traded higher against a basket of major currencies.

It rose against the Singapore dollar to 3.0728/0753 from 3.0734/0758 at Tuesday’s close and inched up against the euro to 4.7201/7229 from 4.7258/7292.

The ringgit rose slightly versus the British pound to 5.6145/6178 from 5.6147/6188 yesterday and added vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.6450/6475 from 3.6569/6598. – Bernama