KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 — The ringgit extended Friday’s downtrend to close lower against the US dollar today on lack of demand, as investors remained cautious ahead of the overnight policy rate (OPR) announcement by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) tomorrow, dealers said.

At 6pm, the ringgit was lower at 4.1460/1490 compared with 4.1410/1440 at Friday’s close.

At its meeting on March 5, BNM’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to maintain the OPR at 3.25 per cent.

On the external front, the dealer said the US-China trade talks faced a stumbling block after the White House threatened to hike tariffs on Chinese goods on Sunday.

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“This has caused the Chinese yuan to slip together with other regional currencies, especially those of emerging markets.

“The ringgit is pegged to the yuan’s performance. Hence uncertainty in the region would cause the currency to take a dip,” she told Bernama.

The ringgit was also traded lower against other major currencies.

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It eased against the Singapore dollar to 3.0412/0440 from 3.0355/0379 on Friday and dropped against the yen to 3.7429/7466 from 3.7142/7179.

The local currency weakened versus the British pound to 5.4317/4373 from 5.3792/3843 and slipped against the euro to 4.6406/6444 from 4.6185/6230. — Bernama