KUALA LUMPUR, May 3 — The ringgit closed lower against the US dollar today amid the greenback’s strengthening vis-a-vis most currencies, as the market continued to readjust positioning in view of the Federal Reserve being non-committal on a rate hike, dealers said.

 At 6pm, the ringgit stood at 4.1410/1440  against the greenback compared with 4.1355/1385 at yesterday’s close.

FXTM’s market analyst, Han Tan, said the US dollar’s resilience weighed on many Asian currencies and the ringgit was certainly not spared from extraneous factors that might make gains harder to come by moving forward.

However, Malaysia can rely on its domestic economic fundamentals to push back against the US dollar tide, given its "brighter” Nikkei Malaysia Purchasing Managers’ Index numbers released yesterday and the rebound in March’s external trade data, he added.

Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded mostly higher against other major currencies except the Japanese yen.

It rose against the Singapore dollar to 3.0355/0379 from 3.0372/0406 yesterday and appreciated versus the British pound to 5.3792/3843 from 5.3985/4032.

The local currency also gained against the euro to 4.6185/6230 from 4.6318/6368 but slipped vis-a-vis the yen to 3.7142/7179 from 3.7073/7103. — Bernama