KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit reversed its gains against the US dollar to open lower on Tuesday as the latter firmed up while bets for further rate interest rate hike continues.
At 9.02 am, the local currency eased to 4.3950/3975 versus the US dollar from last Friday’s close of 4.3870/3910.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the latest print for Nonfarm Payroll (NFP) suggested that the state of the US economy remains positive with total jobs created standing at 390,000 in May, exceeding consensus estimates of 328,000.
Hence, he said the US dollar is gaining all major currencies such as the euro, British pound and yen.
“As such, dollar-ringgit should remain around RM4.39 today while the focus this week would be on the European Central Bank meeting on Thursday, as well as the US Consumer Producer Index for May with consensus estimates lingering around 8.2 per cent (April: 8.3 per cent),” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded higher against a basket of major currencies.
The local note strengthened against the Singapore dollar to 3.1889/1910 from last Friday’s 3.1947/1981, and traded better versus the British pound at 5.5008/5039 compared with 5.5171/5221 previously.
It also improved versus the euro to 4.6956/6983 from 4.7143/7186 on Friday, and increased vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.3230/3251 from 3.3728/3759 previously. — Bernama