KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 8 — The ringgit was flat against the US dollar at the close today, amidst the weak sentiment due to Fitch Ratings’ decision to downgrade Malaysia’s sovereign debt rating.

At 6pm, the local note remained at yesterday’s close of 4.0700/0740 against the greenback.

Axi chief global market strategist Stephen Innes said the ringgit traded cautiously flat, still showing a bit of bruising from the debt agency downgrade.

"(This was) not too unexpected, due to some massive risk around the Brexit deal and European Central Bank policy settings this week, combined with the United States and the European Union lockdown concerns weighing on oil prices,” he told Bernama.

On Dec 4, Fitch Ratings downgraded Malaysia’s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating to ‘BBB+’ from ‘A-’ with a stable outlook, amid the impact of the Covid-19 crisis that has weakened not only Malaysia’s key credit metrics, but also those of other countries.

Meanwhile, the ringgit traded weaker against other major currencies.

It eased against the Singapore dollar to 3.0478/0519 from 3.0403/0442 at yesterday’s close and depreciated vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.4335/4396 from 5.3997/3054 yesterday.

The ringgit fell versus the euro to 4.9353/9418 from yesterday’s 4.9210/9275 and decreased against the Japanese yen at 3.9131/9173 from 3.9022/9072. — Bernama