Ringgit Ends Lower As Fed Signals Steady Rates

By Durratul Ain Ahmad Fuad

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 17 (Bernama) -- The ringgit declined against the US dollar today as expectations for a United States interest rate cut in December have diminished.

This is due to comments by key Federal Reserve (Fed) officials who signalled that interest rates are likely to remain unchanged.

At 6 pm, the ringgit edged down to 4.1480/1515 versus the greenback from Friday’s close of 4.1290/1345.

Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said that such remarks from influential Fed officials appear to have lent the needed support to the US dollar, with the DXY Index rising by 0.10 per cent to 99.400 points.

“Apart from that, technical indicators have shown that the ringgit is already in an overbought condition. This might compel traders to cash their gains in the currency market,” he told Bernama.

At the close, the ringgit traded lower against a basket of major currencies.

It depreciated versus the yen to 2.6805/6829 from 2.6690/6728 at last Friday’s close, fell against the euro to 4.8125/8166 from 4.7983/8047 and slipped vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.4608/4654 from 5.4313/4385 previously.

The ringgit traded lower against ASEAN currencies.

It weakened against the Thai baht to 12.7847/8018 from 12.7356/7580 at last Friday’s close, edged down versus the Singapore dollar to 3.1864/1893 from 3.1720/1765, eased vis-a-vis the Indonesian rupiah to 247.8/248.1 from 247.1/247.5 and shed against the Philippine peso at 7.04/7.05 from 6.99/7.00 previously.

-- BERNAMA