KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 — The ringgit retreated from this morning’s gains to close weaker against the US dollar today as a growing expectation for the US Federal Reserve (US Fed) to begin tapering asset purchases shifted investor interest towards the greenback, dealers said.

At 6pm, the local note was traded lower at 4.1615/1640 against the US dollar, compared with 4.1490/1515 at yesterday’s closing.

Many analysts have expressed concerns that the CPI data hike would lead to a quicker tapering of asset purchases by the US Fed.

Citing Goldman Sachs’ statement issued on Monday, ActivTrades trader Dyogenes Rodrigues Diniz said the investment bank saw a 70 per cent chance that the Fed would announce the tapering process at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in November.

"Investors have already anticipated the possible tapering process and this has caused the dollar to appreciate against the ringgit,” he said.

Meanwhile, the local note was also traded lower against a basket of major currencies at the close.

It ended slightly lower against the euro at 4.9164/9193 from 4.8921/8950 at yesterday’s close and depreciated against the Japanese yen to 3.7811/7834 from 3.7681/7703 previously.

The ringgit also eased against the Singapore dollar at 3.0987/1008 from 3.0903/0926 yesterday and weakened against the British pound at 5.7687/7721 from 5.7356/7390 previously. — Bernama