KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 11 — The ringgit extended its losses against the US dollar today as the greenback saw range-bound trading following Monday’s sharp advance.
The US Dollar Index (DXY) recovery appeared capped at the 93.00 level as traders remained focused on the US post-election scenario, a dealer said.
At 6pm, the local currency stood at 4.1270/1320 versus the greenback compared with yesterday’s close of 4.1180/1230.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the ringgit/US dollar had corrected 112 percentage points to RM4.1310 today.
“As expected, the sharp appreciation of ringgit recently has led to some profit-taking activities seeping in, and in light of that, further correction is likely this week,” he told Bernama.
He noted that the ringgit/dollar performance had been very decent this year after a sharp selloff in March whereby the ringgit weakened to more than RM4.40.
However, the external development is expected to continue to dictate their direction in the immediate term.
With positive economic numbers appearing to have been priced in, the conclusion of the US fiscal stimulus talks would set the tone for future direction of emerging market currencies including the ringgit, he added.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was also traded lower against other major currencies at the close today.
It fell against the Singapore dollar to 3.0602/0651 from yesterday’s close of 3.0567/0606 and declined against the euro to 4.8670/8741 from 4.8613/8684.
The local note weakened vis-a-vis the yen to 3.9130/9196 today from 3.9092/9151 yesterday and decreased against the British pound to 5.4724/4807 from 5.4551/4634 previously. — Bernama