KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit open lower against the US dollar today, weighed down by continued demand for the greenback, dealers said.
At 9 am, the local unit slid to 4.1580/1620 versus the greenback from 4.1560/1600 last Friday.
Oanda Head of Trading Asia-Pacific Stephen Innes said the US Federal Open Market Committee minutes of last week’s meeting reaffirmed that the US economy was strong and the Fed was in support of continuing with their plan of gradual policy normalisation.
“Interest rates will likely continue to increase given the strong US economic backdrop which will keep the US dollar supported,” he added.
On the local front, he said the move by the government to slash economic growth targets and deserting its plans to balance the budget by 2020, was not helping the financial markets in the country.
“And with capital gains taxes and other consumption taxes on the horizon, it is not to difficult to figure out why Malaysian equity markets remain under pressure,” Innes added.
Meanwhile, the ringgit traded mostly lower against other major currencies, except the Japanese yen.
Against the yen, the ringgit recovered to 3.6973/7019 from 3.6982/7027 last Friday.It dropped against the British pound to 5.4283/4356 from 5.4132/4205 and eased against the Singapore dollar to 3.0163/0197 from 3.0129/0169,wis-a-vis the euro, the local note depreciated to 4.7825/7888 from 4.7619/7674.