KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 — The ringgit strengthened against the US dollar today, buoyed by optimism over the country’s goal of achieving herd immunity by September at the latest.
At 6pm, the local note rose to 4.1480/1500 from yesterday’s close of 4.1510/1530.
According to Bloomberg, the ringgit is poised to rebound in the second half of the year, supported by achievement of herd immunity.
At mid-afternoon today, the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said Malaysia will receive one million AstraZeneca vaccines donated by Japan tomorrow and another one million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine donated by the US on Friday.
Meanwhile, OANDA Asia Pacific senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley said the US dollar continued to consolidate its post-Federal Open Market Committee meeting gains, with virus concerns globally also providing some safe-haven support.
“However, the foreign exchange markets appear to remain at a much more heightened state of alert, regarding potential spikes in US yields, than other asset classes.”
At the close, the ringgit was traded higher against a basket of major currencies.
The local note improved further versus the British pound to 5.7462/7490 from 5.7516/7544 at yesterday’s close and appreciated against the euro to 4.9316/9339 from 4.9434/9458.
However, the ringgit rose versus the Singapore dollar to 3.0870/0887 from yesterday’s 3.0883/0900, and was slightly better vis-a-vis the yen to 3.7528/7550 from 3.7538/7560 previously. — Bernama
