RINGGIT SOFTER VERSUS US DOLLAR IN EARLY TRADE ON PROFIT-TAKING

By Zufazlin Baharuddin

KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 (Bernama) -- The ringgit opened slightly lower against the US dollar today on mild profit-taking.

At 8 am, the ringgit inched down to 4.6725/6945 against the US dollar from last Friday's close of 4.6700/6730.

Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the local note is overbought following last week’s gain.

“The overbought condition for the ringgit against the greenback from the technical standpoint may lead traders to cash in some of their gains,” he told Bernama, adding that the general trend for a strong ringgit is still intact.

“Ringgit is expected to be well supported as talks for US monetary easing has gained more steam of late.

“This was largely on the back of softening economic data, such as the weaker University of Michigan consumer sentiment index dropping to the 66.0 point in July from 68.2 in June,” he said.

He added that the US inflation rate is also moderating. This suggests that the restrictive monetary policy has lowered the inflation rate.

Hence, he expects the ringgit to stay within the RM4.67 level today.

Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded lower against other major currencies.

It weakened against the Japanese yen to 2.9528/9671 from last Friday’s close of 2.9338/9359, slid against the euro to 5.0865/1104 from 5.0838/0870, and depreciated against the British pound to 6.0588/0874 from 6.0481/0520 previously.

It traded mostly lower against ASEAN currencies.

It edged down against the Singapore dollar to 3.4792/4961 from 3.4768/4793 last Friday, marginally declined against the Indonesian rupiah to 289.5/291.0 from 289.3/289.7 and depreciated against the Thai baht to 12.9142/9826 from 12.9023/9160 previously.

The local unit was flat against the Philippine peso to 8.00/8.04 from 8.00/8.00.

-- BERNAMA