KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 17 — The ringgit extended Wednesday’s loss to close lower against the US dollar today, in line with the downtrend in other emerging currencies as more investors shifted towards safe haven assets, dealers said.

At 6pm, the local note was traded weaker at 4.1700/1730 versus the greenback, compared with 4.1570/1590 at Wednesday’s closing.

A dealer said that the greenback got extra support due to the better-than-anticipated US core retail sales and jobless claims data for August 2021 that was released recently.

"This has great potential to cause the US dollar to appreciate over the next few days, as high consumer spending could signal to the US Federal Reserve (US Fed) that it will have to cut financial stimulus, which currently stands at US$120 billion per month, sooner than expected,” he said.

Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded mostly higher against a basket of major currencies at the close.

It ended slightly higher against the euro at 4.9135/9170 compared to 4.9152/9176 at Wednesday’s close and weakened vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.7483/7525 from 5.7475/7502 previously.

However, the local note rose against the Singapore dollar to 3.0985/1010 from 3.1002/1019 on Wednesday and appreciated versus the Japanese yen to 3.7913/7943 from 3.8019/8041 previously. — Bernama