By Siti Noor Afera Abu
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 23 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysian ringgit retreated from Thursday’s gains to open lower against the US dollar on Friday due to the lack of interest in the local currency as the greenback strengthened on the possibility of another interest rate hike by the United States (US) Federal Reserve (Fed), a dealer said.
At 9.05 am, the local note was traded at 4.4300/4380 against the greenback from Thursday’s close of 4.4215/4255.
SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes opined that the Asian forex exchange will struggle as the market veers into risk aversion, due to the assumption that the Fed will continue hiking interest rates too aggressively which could send the global economy into recession.
“Although the ringgit’s medium-term outlook remains favourable, I expect this to be another transient bump on the road due to external factors,” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded higher against a basket of major currencies.
The local note was traded slightly higher versus the Singapore dollar at 3.2718/2784 from 3.2798/2833 at Thursday’s close and appreciated vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.3401/3464 from 3.3486/3521 previously.
The ringgit also strengthened against the British pound to 5.3257/3354 from 5.3522/3571 Thursday and firmed against the euro to 4.6909/6994 from 4.7085/7127.
— NNN-BERNAMA