KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 — The ringgit eased against the US dollar at the close today amid the strengthening of the greenback and the fall in oil prices, dealers said.
As at 6pm, the local unit slid to 4.2680/2730 against the greenback from yesterday’s close of 4.2600/2640.
A dealer said the US dollar regained some composure and the US Dollar Index (DXY) retook the 96.00 mark after bottoming out in the vicinity of 95.80 yesterday.
On another note, he said oil prices slipped after the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (Opec+) agreed to ease supply cuts from August; however, the drop was cushioned by the expectation of the US demand pick-up on the back of a huge drawdown from the country’s crude stocks.
AxiCorp chief global market strategist Stephen Innes told Bernama the local currency weakened in line with Asian peers as the regional stock markets hit a bit of a roadblock despite overnight positive sentiment on Wall Street.
This was directly attributable to the worse-than-expected retail sales number in China this morning which declined 3.9 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter, he said.
“The negative reading suggests that consumers are not spending, and this reflects poorly on what is expected to be a consumer-driven economic recovery.
“This hurts the ringgit since Malaysia has strong export ties with China,” he added.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded higher against other benchmark currencies.
The local unit rose against the British pound to 5.3435/3519 from yesterday’s 5.3680/3748 and appreciated against the yen to 3.9828/9882 from 3.9835/9877 yesterday.
The ringgit increased against the Singapore dollar to 3.0626/0666 from 3.0661/0694 yesterday and improved against the euro to 4.8570/8640 from 4.8675/8729. — Bernama
