KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 15 — The ringgit bucked the regional trend to close lower against the US dollar today on lack of demand for the local note.

At 6pm, the ringgit was quoted at 4.1030/1080 against the greenback from 4.0970/0020 recorded yesterday. 

A dealer said that this was due to profit-taking on the ringgit following its recent rally when it touched a four-month high of 4.0940/0980 last Friday.

However, he said that the ringgit would continue to strengthen as the nine-week foreign net selling on Bursa Malaysia had ended and the global benchmark Brent crude oil price was expected to reach US$60.48 per barrel this week.

At press time, Brent crude traded at US$59.44 per barrel.

"Besides the return of foreign funds and stable oil price, the statistics on labour participation also showed that the country is in a stable path in creating jobs,” he said to Bernama.

The Statistics Department today released the November labour data which showed that on a year-on-year basis, the labour force participation rate increased 0.5 percentage point from 67.9 per cent previously while the unemployment rate remained at 3.3 per cent. 

Meanwhile, the ringgit traded mixed against other major currencies.

It declined against the Singapore dollar to 3.0312/0360 from 3.0238/0286 recorded yesterday, and strengthened versus the euro to 4.6910/6975 from 4.6960/6034.

The local unit appreciated vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.7788/7844 from 3.7879/7936 previously and contracted against the British pound to 5.2777/2874 from 5.2577/2653. — Bernama