KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 ― The ringgit opened marginally lower today following a chaotic overnight session in crude oil markets which saw the US crude oil futures plunged to below US$0 for the first time in history.

At 9.01am, the ringgit weakened to 4.3780/3880 against the US dollar from 4.3700/3770 at yesterday’s close.

AxiCorp global chief market strategist Stephen Innes said the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures for May contract 2020 traded to -US$40.32 (RM177) per barrel.

“The sharp plunge in demand has caused storage saturation levels to the brim, forcing sellers to pay buyers to take May barrels.

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“Should the crude oil price remains under pressure, which it is expected to, this could exert more downside risk to the ringgit,” he said in a note today.

Malaysia, being a net exporter of crude oil and petroleum products, is heavily reliant on the price movement of this commodity.

At the opening bell, the ringgit traded mixed against other major currencies.

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It depreciated against the yen to 4.0631/0728 from 4.0587/0663 yesterday and fell against the Singapore dollar to 3.0772/0860 from 3.0751/0811 yesterday.

Vis-a-vis the pound, the local note advanced to 5.4432/4574 from 5.4524/4616 yesterday and against the euro, it ticked up to 4.7528/7649 from 4.7550/7644 at yesterday’s close. ― Bernama