KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 — The ringgit ended the week higher against the US dollar today lifted by a softer greenback on the back of political uncertainty in the United States coupled with progress on the US-China trade deal.
As at 6pm, the ringgit was traded at 4.1380/1420 versus the US dollar compared with 4.1400/1440 yesterday.
AxiTrader chief Asia market strategist Stephen Innes said there was a small wobble on the ringgit after Chinese President Xi Jinping cancelled his plans for the World Economic Form in Davos, thus scuppering a possible face-to-face meeting with US President Donald Trump.
The summit in Davos, Switzerland is scheduled to take place from Jan 21 to Jan 24.
On the local front, he said there was little reaction to the lower-than-expected Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures headline inflation.
The CPI inched up 0.9 per cent in November 2019 to 122.1 against 121.0 recorded in the same month last year due to higher index of miscellaneous goods and services (2.5 per cent); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (1.7 per cent); education (1.6 per cent); food and non-alcoholic beverages (1.5 per cent); communication (1.5 per cent), as well as furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance (1.5 per cent).
“The market is only pricing in a slight cancel of a Bank Negara Malaysia rate cut and the weaker inflation print didn’t adjust the dial to any significant degree to a rate cut setting much,” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, the ringgit traded mostly higher against a basket of major currencies.
It rose against the Singapore dollar to 3.0518/0559 from 3.0542/0581 yesterday, strengthened versus the British pound to 5.3955/3024 from 5.4251/4320 and increased against the euro to 4.6010/6067 from 4.6099/6156 yesterday.
The local unit, however, depreciated vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.7842/7889 from 3.7788/7827 previously. — Bernama
