Ringgit Falls Against US Dollar Following Strong US Payrolls Data

By Siti Noor Afera Abu

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 (Bernama) -- The ringgit ended lower against the US dollar, mirroring the trend of other Asian currencies, after stronger-than-expected US nonfarm payrolls (NFP) data for September suggested the US economy was avoiding a recession and on course for a soft landing, an analyst said.

At 6 pm, the local note stood at 4.2810/2880 versus the greenback compared to last Friday’s close of 4.2155/2240.  

Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid noted that the ringgit has exceeded expectations, achieving a year-to-date gain of 7.22 per cent to become the top-performing currency in Asia.

However, he said that from a technical perspective, the sharp appreciation has left the ringgit in an overbought condition for some time.

“Naturally, traders would want to cash out some of their gains and the NFP results provided the right opportunity,” he told Bernama.

He said the upcoming challenge is the release of the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) data on Oct 10. The consensus expects inflation to decrease to 2.3 per cent in September versus 2.5 per cent in August, while core CPI is projected to remain steady at 3.2 per cent.

At the close, the ringgit traded lower against major currencies.

It fell versus the euro to 4.6920/6996 from 4.6484/6578 at the end of last week, decreased against the Japanese yen to 2.8857/8909 from 2.8779/8839 at Friday’s close, and edged down vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.5953/6044 from 5.5505/5617 previously. 

The local currency also performed lower versus ASEAN currencies.

It depreciated vis-a-vis the Singapore dollar to 3.2832/2888 from 3.2489/2557 at the previous close and weakened against the Indonesian rupiah to 272.8/273.4 from 272.1/272.9. 

The ringgit eased versus the Thai baht to 12.7948/8218 from 12.7549/7861 last Friday and slid against the Philippine peso to 7.54/7.55 from 7.49/7.51 previously. 

-- BERNAMA