By Anas Abu Hassan<\/p>\n\n\n\n
KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysian ringgit is expected to trade in cautious mode with an upward bias against the US dollar next week ahead of a decision by the United States Federal Reserve (Fed) on its monetary policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist & social finance Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the market will continue to endure periods leading to the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in the mid-week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said following a 50-basis points (bps) interest rate hike by the European Central Bank (ECB) this week, similar dynamics can be expected from the FOMC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA 25 bps hike seems to be on the cards next week. But beyond that, we shall see the Fed\u2019s narrative, which could potentially explain the appreciation of the ringgit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNonetheless, the prevailing market condition is still highly fluid whereby risk-off mode could easily emerge. If that happens, it could boost the US dollar,” he told Bernama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mohd Afzanizam added that the US dollar versus ringgit is likely to gyrate towards its immediate support level of 4.4652 next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The local currency ended the week higher against the US dollar following concerns over a potential banking crisis after two US banks got into trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a week-on-week basis, the ringgit was stronger against the US dollar at 4.4850\/4880 at Friday’s close versus 4.5180\/5220 a week earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, the local note was traded mostly lower against a basket of major currencies compared to a week earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It fell against the British pound at 5.4390\/4426 from 5.4148\/4196 a week earlier and dropped against the Japanese yen to 3.3679\/3704 from 3.3038\/3070, but improved vis-a-vis the euro to 4.7743\/7775 from 4.7823\/7865 previously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, the ringgit traded mixed against its Asean counterparts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The local note shrank versus the Singapore dollar to 3.3393\/3418 from 3.3316\/3351 in the previous week and depreciated against the Thai baht to 13.0987\/1151 from 12.8894\/9064.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It gained vis-a-vis the Indonesian rupiah to 292.20\/292.60 from 292.30\/292.80 a week earlier and remained unchanged against the Philippine peso at 8.19\/8.20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
— NNN-BERNAMA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Anas Abu Hassan KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysian ringgit is expected to trade in cautious mode with an upward bias against the US dollar next week ahead of a decision by the United States Federal Reserve (Fed) on its monetary policy. Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist & social finance Dr Mohd […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":147241,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[215,288,300,318],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214995"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=214995"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214996,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214995\/revisions\/214996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/147241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=214995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=214995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=214995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}