KUALA LUMPUR, June 13 — The ringgit declined to its lowest level since Jan 22, 2018 at today’s close, mainly weighed on by a continued outflow in foreign funds due to perceived policy uncertainty under the new government, along with a firmer greenback ahead of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) meeting.
At 6pm, the ringgit was quoted at 3.9920/9960 against the greenback from Tuesday’s close of 3.9880/9910.
Oanda Head of Trading in Asia-Pacific, Stephen Innes said the report by rating company, Moody’s Investors Service on the Malaysian government’s fiscal policies today, also weighed on the local note.
Innes said the report, which estimated revenue lost from the scrapped Goods and Services Tax would measure around 1.1 per cent of gross domestic product in 2017 and 1.7 per cent beyond 2018, had put more stress on the ringgit.
“Even more so with some traders setting their sights on the psychological level of RM4 versus one US dollar.But, on a positive note, domestic growth prospects would not falter in the near term,” he added.
Meanwhile, Innes also noted that investors and traders remained focused on the Fed meeting ending later today for investment direction.
At close, the local unit, however, traded higher against a basket of currencies.
It advanced against the Singapore dollar to 2.9874/9908 from Tuesday’s close of 2.9897/9931 and increased against the British pound to 5.3241/3311 versus 5.3415/3475.
Vis-a-vis the Japanese yen, the local unit also improved to 3.6097/6140 from 3.6205/6242 on Tuesday and climbed against the euro to 4.6922/6973 from 4.7038/7082. — Bernama
