KUALA LUMPUR, June 16 — The ringgit closed slightly better against the US dollar today, despite the broadly higher performance of the local equity market and the oil price.

At 9am, the ringgit was quoted at 4.2700/2770 compared with Monday’s closing of 4.2730/2780.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) advanced 18.88 points or 1.26 per cent to end the day at 1,517.71 from yesterday’s close of 1,498.83, while Brent crude gained 1.49 per cent to trade at US$40.31 per barrel as at the time of writing.

AxiCorp global chief market strategist Stephen Innes said improved sentiment for the ringgit, were left muted, suggesting that some foreign investors were concern about the pace of the local economic recovery.

"This came after former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin suggested in a news report that ‘it is very premature to claim that we will get out of the woods soon’, prompting ringgit to stay at the sidelines,” said Innes.

In the news report, Daim said that it was still too soon for the Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz to predict Malaysia’s economy could begin its recovery next year, given that the world-stopping Covid-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented global recession.

Meanwhile, the ringgit traded mostly lower against a basket of major currencies.

It eased versus the Singapore dollar to 3.0713/0770 from 3.0620/0662 at yesterday’s close but was slightly higher vis-a-vis the Japanese yen at 3.9765/9842 from 3.9816/9870.

The local currency declined to 5.4058/4151 from 5.3571/3655 versus the British pound and fell against the euro to 4.8388/8480 from 4.8067/8128 previously. — Bernama