KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 — The ringgit ended lower against the US dollar on Monday as the greenback strengthened post-United States’ Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting last week.
At 6pm, the local note weakened to 4.1450/1480 versus the greenback from 4.1380/1410 at last Friday’s close.
An analyst said the United States (US) Federal Reserves had hinted that it might need to raise interest rates by late 2022 instead of its earlier projection of 2023, thus triggering investors to withdraw from equity markets and commodities to seek safe-haven assets like the US dollar.
Another analyst said the dollar was traded at 15 months against its major peers and had strengthened against emerging Asia Pacific markets, including Asean.
“Asean currencies seem to be more sensitive to external event risks, particularly from countries like the US and China,” he added.
At the close, the ringgit was traded mixed against a basket of major currencies.
It strengthened against the Singapore dollar to 3.0841/0868 from 3.0851/0875 at last Friday’s close and advanced against the British pound to 5.7495/7537 from 5.7526/7568 earlier.
Against the Japanese yen, the ringgit eased to 3.7641/7671 from 3.7570/7598 last Friday and had also weakened against the euro to 4.9321/9357 from 4.9308/9344 previously. — Bernama
