KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit ended lower versus the stronger US dollar amid weaker demand for the currency.
At 6pm, the ringgit stood at 4.0730/0760 against the greenback from 4.0610/0640 at Monday’s close.
AxiTrader chief Asia market strategist Stephen Innes said the downtrend in the local unit was in line with the yuan performance, which has pulled back from its highest level in more than five months after the US removed China from its currency manipulator list.
“The currency manipulator headline is a sentiment shift that hopefully will lead to a more harmonious ‘phase two’ trade discussions,” he said.
The decision was made before the signing of a “phase one” trade deal between the US and China, scheduled to be held tomorrow.
Innes said in general, the US dollar’s performance among the G-10 currencies – 10 of the most heavily traded currencies in the world – remained very resilient.
“Plus, there is still some level of unknown as to what the trade deal will entail,” he added.
Overall, the ringgit was traded lower against other major currencies.
It went down against the Singapore dollar to 3.0224/0251 from 3.0146/0177 at Monday’s close, and depreciated against the Japanese yen to 3.7021/7051 from 3.6965/6999 previously.
The local note weakened against the British pound to 5.2831/2886 compared with 5.2675/2730 yesterday, and decreased against the euro to 4.5332/5382 versus 4.5130/5179 on Monday. – Jan 14 Bernama
