KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 19 — An economist said the ringgit continued to trend lower against the US dollar for the fifth consecutive day on Thursday, as higher United States (US) Treasury yield weighed on the sentiment towards local currency.
At 6.03pm, the local currency fell to 4.7680/7710 against the greenback from Wednesday’s close of 4.7445/7485.
SPI Asset Management managing partner Stephen Innes said the ringgit has been dragged down today and might weaken further unless it gets relief from a less hawkish US Federal Reserve or weaker US data.
“The higher US yields are basically weighing down the ringgit these days. As the Middle East safe-haven flow is starting to ease a bit due to diplomatic effort, so the ringgit downtrend is all about the yields,” he told Bernama.
The ringgit had also eased versus a basket of major currencies except the British pound, which had strengthened to 5.7712/7748 from 5.7869/7917 at Wednesday’s close.
The local note fell against the euro to 5.0274/0305 from 5.0140/0182 and was lower against the yen at 3.1821/1843 from 3.1685/1714 at yesterday’s close.
At the same time, it was traded mixed against other Asian currencies.
The ringgit rose against the Thai baht to 13.0716/0849 versus 13.0738/0914 at yesterday’s close and slightly higher against the Indonesian rupiah at 301.4/301.8 from 301.5/302.0 previously.
However, the local unit slipped against the Singapore dollar to 3.4702/4726 from yesterday’s close of 3.4649/4681 and depreciated vis-a-vis the Philippines peso to 8.38/8.39 from 8.37/8.38 yesterday.
— Bernama
