By Rosemarie Khoo Mohd Sani
KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysian ringgit opened marginally higher against the US dollar Thursday, recovering from its sharp fall yesterday after the US dollar surged due to the likelihood of the United States (US) Federal Reserve (Fed) raising the interest rate.
At 9 am, the local note stood at 4.5190/5235 versus the greenback compared with Wednesday’s closing rate of 4.5230/5265.
SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes suggested that the ringgit might have recovered some lost ground.
“But investors will remain extremely cautious regardless of how the ringgit ends the day,” he told Bernama.
Innes said the US Fed is still dealing with an unusual mix of labour market strength and weakness in the most interest rate-sensitive sectors like housing.
“While the Fed is being asked for too much to solve a structural labour supply issue, unfortunately for Asian investors, the Fed looks prepared to raise interest rates to tamp down inflation,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd’s head of economics, market analysis and social finance, Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the ringgit is expected to stay weak and continue to flirt around the immediate resistant level of RM4.5293.
“Today’s Monetary Policy Meeting (MPC) decision would shed more colour on the Overnight Policy Rate. As such, ringgit is expected to trade in a narrow range today,” he said.
Meanwhile, the ringgit traded mostly lower against a basket of major currencies, except for the British pound where it had marginally strengthened to 5.3528/3581 this morning from 5.3530/3571 Wednesday.
The local note fell against the Japanese yen to 3.2993/3028 from 3.2880/2908 at Wednesday’s close and dropped marginally vis-a-vis the euro to 4.7662/7709 from 4.7650/7687.
Conversely, the ringgit traded mostly higher against Asean currencies, except the Thai baht.
It appreciated against the Singapore dollar to 3.3388/3426 from 3.3397/3428 on Wednesday’s closing, ticked up against the Indonesian rupiah to 292.7/293.1 from 292.9/293.3 and improved vis-a-vis the Philippines’ peso to 8.17/8.18 from 8.18/8.19 previously.
However, the local note depreciated against the Thai baht to 12.8985/9169 from 12.8912/9070 Wednesday.
— NNN-BERNAMA
