KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 5 — The ringgit opened lower against the US dollar on Monday due to a lack of buying demand as the US Dollar Index continued to strengthen.
At 9.05am, the ringgit stood at 4.7570/7620 versus the greenback compared with last Friday's close of 4.7155/7185.
SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes told Bernama the ringgit will experience a bit of a setback this week as the solid US jobs data saw the greenback continuing to gain traction.
Against a basket of major currencies, the ringgit was traded mostly higher.
It improved against the Japanese Yen to 3.1999/2035 from 3.2142/2164 at last Friday's close, appreciated against the British pound to 5.9976/6.0039 from 6.0160/0199 and increased versus the euro to 5.1252/1306 from 5.1352/1384 previously.
However, the local note traded mostly lower against other Asean currencies.
The local unit eased against the Singapore dollar to 3.5379/5418 versus 3.5309/5334 on Friday, declined against the Indonesian rupiah to 303.7/304.2 from 301.0/301.4 and fell against the Philippine peso to 8.48/8.49 from 8.43/8.44 previously.
It rose against the Thai baht to 13.3436/3640 from 13.3735/3873 last Friday.
— Bernama
