KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 — The ringgit is anticipated to stabilise against the US dollar next week as the US Federal Reserve (Fed) is about to enter a blackout period ahead of its two-day meeting starting May 3.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said that Fed officials would refrain from making any comments on monetary policy, lending some support to the local currency.
“We also consider the possibility of some form of a correction occurring next week as technical indicators indicate that the ringgit is in an oversold position, indicating that a correction is quite likely,” he told Bernama.
Commenting further on the trend next week, he said the resistance and support level is at RM4.34 and RM4.228 respectively.
“I suppose it would gyrate around this level and the ringgit performance is very volatile at the moment,” he added.
Meanwhile, SPI Asset Management partner Stephen Innes believes that as China imposed another lockdown and there is no end in sight to mobility restriction in China as well as the People’s Bank of China’s lack of policy easing, the ringgit will continue to weaken in tandem with the yuan.
“I think the ringgit would trade at the range of 4.3165 to 4.3475 to the US dollar next week,” he said.
On a weekly basis, the ringgit was lower against the greenback at 4.3230/3270 on Friday compared to 4.2330/2380 a week earlier.
The ringgit ended lower and reached the 4.30-level against the US dollar on Friday, a level last seen in June 2020.
In terms of year-to-date performance, the local currency has depreciated 2.75 per cent, reflecting weak global sentiment and keeping pace with the Chinese yuan.
Meanwhile, the local unit traded lower against a basket of major currencies on a Friday-to-Friday basis.
The ringgit dropped against the Singapore dollar to 3.1633/1667 from 3.1198/1242 a week earlier, slipped vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.3652/3686 from 3.3465/3510.
The local currency weakened against the British pound to 5.5641/5693 from 5.5308/5374 last week and eased versus the euro to 4.6710/6753 from 4.5776/5830 previously. — Bernama
