KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 — The ringgit continued its slide to open slightly lower against the US dollar in the absence of a bounce in crude oil prices.
At 9.03 am, the local unit was traded at 4.3900/4000 versus the greenback as compared with 4.3880/3950 at the close of yesterday.
AxiCorp global chief market strategist Stephen Innes said with the organic stabilising effect of petrodollar inflows missing, the ringgit continued to struggle.
“This is getting compounded by a somewhat resilient US dollar as global risk appetite wanes,” he said in a note today.
As at 9.32am, US crude oil futures benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) climbed 17.55 per cent to US$13.60 (RM59.50) per barrel.
The international benchmark, Brent Crude rose 1.5 per cent to US$19.62 per barrel, but still stay below US$20 per barrel.
Malaysia is a net exporter of crude oil and petroleum products, hence, crude oil price movements exert a significant influence on the strength of the ringgit.
However, the local note traded mostly higher against other major currencies, except against the euro.
It appreciated against the yen to 4.0727/0824 from 4.0841/0918 yesterday, slightly strengthened against the Singapore dollar to 3.0671/0746 from 3.0676/0734 and went up against the pound to 5.3936/4076 from 5.4122/4226 yesterday.
Vis-a-vis the euro, the local note slipped to 4.7653/7780 from 4.7526/7620 previously. — Bernama
