KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 — The ringgit extended yesterday’s gains to close higher against the US dollar today, as more investors shift towards emerging currencies, including the ringgit, due to positive developments on the global markets, dealer said.
As of 6pm, the local note stood at 4.3838/3670 compared with yesterday’s close of 4.4335/4400.
The dealer said that the market reacted positively to the encouraging stimulus measures by major central banks around the globe to stimulate the global economy which has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, he said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is expecting the pandemic to cause a global recession this year that could be worse than the one triggered by the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, but it believed that world economic output should recover in 2021.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded mostly higher against a basket of major currencies.
It increased slightly against the Singapore dollar at 3.0328/0364 from 3.0557/0611 at yesterday’s close and rose vis-a-vis the euro to 4.7516/7577 from 4.7967/8007 yesterday.
It had strengthened against the Japanese Yen to 3.9334/9384 from 4.0174/0185, but depreciated against the British pound to 5.2473/2530 from 5.1689/1703 yesterday. — Bernama
