KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit closed weaker towards the US greenback as the greenback stayed resilient, growing its attraction as a safe-haven foreign money on escalating geopolitical tensions, the Federal Reserve (Fed)’s hawkish comment as nicely as constructive US financial knowledge, an economist mentioned.
Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Afzanizam Rashid mentioned the US greenback gained additional traction at this time as nonfarm payrolls (NFP) knowledge for January confirmed that the US financial system has been remarkably resilient.
He mentioned the NFP got here in greater than anticipated at 353,000, which was a lot greater than the consensus estimates of 185,000.
“The impression from the NFP outturn signifies that the Fed may need to hold the charges greater for longer which might translate into additional assist for the US greenback.
“Inadvertently, rising market currencies together with the ringgit can be negatively affected,” he advised eNM.
He identified that at this juncture, the uncertainties over US financial coverage will proceed to hog the limelight in the foreign money market as it seems that the market expectation of a charge minimize in March has been fairly untimely.
“Such a setback would solely give extra energy to the US greenback. As such, the ringgit is prone to stay in a slim vary though additional draw back appears restricted provided that it has been hovering at an oversold place,” he added.
At 6pm, the ringgit fell to 4.7460/4.7520 towards the greenback from final Friday’s closing charge of 4.7155/4.7185.
Meanwhile, the ringgit traded greater towards a basket of main currencies.
It rose vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to three.1957/3.2000 from 3.2142/3.2164 eventually Friday’s shut, appreciated towards the British pound to five.9804/5.9880 from 6.0160/6.0199 beforehand and superior versus the euro to five.1038/5.1103 from 5.1352/5.1384.
The native foreign money traded combined versus Asean currencies.
The ringgit improved towards the Singapore greenback to three.5260/3.5307 versus 3.5309/3.5334 final Friday and rose versus the Thai baht to 13.2559/13.2782 from 13.3735/13.3873.
However, it was decrease towards the Indonesian rupiah at 302.1/302.6 in comparison with 301/301.4 on Friday and was unchanged versus the Philippine peso at 8.43/8.45.
