KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit extended last week’s downtrend to open lower against the US dollar as the greenback strengthened on better-than-expected employment data.
At 9am, the ringgit was quoted at 4.1460/1480 against the US dollar from 4.1360/1400 on Friday.
AxiCorp’s chief market strategist Stephen Innes said the ringgit remains under pressure on general Asia de-risking amid concerns over the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
Against other major currencies, the ringgit was traded mostly lower.
It weakened against the Singapore dollar to 2.9799/9818 from 2.9730/9769 on Friday, depreciated vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.7801/7829 from 3.7672/7712 and dropped against the euro to 4.5407/5433 from 4.5306/5354.
However, the local currency appreciated versus the British pound to 5.3459/3488 from 5.3466/3534 previously. - Bernama