KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit ended the week lower against the US dollar today in the absence of fresh market catalysts, an economist said.
At 6pm, the local note depreciated to 4.3995/4.4035 versus the greenback from Thursday’s closing rate of 4.3950/4.4010.
Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist and social finance head Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said market participants were awaiting the US non-farm payroll (NFP) report numbers for March, which will be released later tonight.
He said after delivering 504,000 in January, the NFP figure came down to 311,000 in February and the expectation was 240,000 for March.
“It really depends on how it will turn out. Should the NFP be more than what the market expects, there is a tendency the US dollar might get stronger as the intuition would be that the US Federal Reserve will continue to deliver a 25-basis point hike in May, and hurt risky assets like the ringgit,” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, the ringgit traded mostly higher against a basket of major currencies.
It appreciated against the Japanese yen to 3.3411/3.3443 compared with 3.3465/3.3514 at Thursday’s close and went up versus the British pound to 5.4730/5.4780 from 5.4753/5.4828 previously, but decreased vis-a-vis the euro to 4.8016/4.8060 from 4.7936/4.8002 at yesterday’s close.
Concurrently, the ringgit traded mostly lower against Asean currencies.
The local note was lower compared with the Indonesian rupiah at 295.00/295.30 from 294.70/295.20 at Thursday’s close and edged down against the Thai baht to 12.9090/12.9279 from 12.8893/12.9145 yesterday.
It also weakened against the Philippine peso at 8.08/8.09 from 8.07/8.09 previously and fell versus the Singapore dollar to 3.3079/3.3114 from 3.3065/3.3113 yesterday. - FMT
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