KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit continued its slide against the US dollar at the close today as the greenback stayed strong after the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes indicated that it remained committed to raising interest rates in order to bring down inflation.
Asian currencies were also moving in a tight range on Thursday, ahead of the upcoming US consumer price index (CPI) for September that is expected to show inflation staying close to 40-year highs, an analyst said.
At 6 pm, the ringgit fell to 4.6910/6940 against the US dollar from Wednesday’s close of 4.6820/6855.
SPI Asset Management managing partner Stephen Innes said the local currency closed on a weaker note as traders stayed very defensive ahead of the US CPI data, given how prominent the US dollar-long position is in Asia’s foreign exchange.
"We need to clear the US CPI risk and, more importantly, the final-day buybacks from the Bank of England, whose emergency operations are set to expire tomorrow. And then see where the dust settles before there is any hope for investors to buy risky Asia assets,” he told Bernama.
Domestically, he noted the rising political risk with the upcoming general election.
According to him, globally it is a very tough market to navigate, and investors are in dire need of a significant drop in both bond and stock market volatility.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded mostly lower against a basket of major currencies except the Japanese yen.
The local note fell against the British pound to 5.2291/2324 from 5.1825/1864 at Wednesday's close, depreciated vis-a-vis the euro to 4.5625/5654 from 4.5453/5487, and slipped versus the Singapore dollar to 3.2726/2752 from 3.2595/2622.
However, it strengthened against the Japanese yen to 3.1957/1980 from 3.1987/2014 yesterday. - Bernama
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