At 9.02am, the local note slipped to 4.2725/2775 versus the US dollar from 4.2505/2515 at Monday’s close.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said St Louis Fed President James Bullard has indicated that 75 basis points hike in interest rates could be the case in the next meeting.

“This has sent the US Dollar Index to 100.987 points, which has been above 100 points for five trading days in a row.”

“The US dollar to ringgit (exchange rate) has flirted with its resistant level of RM4.2762, and judging from the technical indicators, the ringgit has already been oversold. As such, the ringgit should stay around RM4.27 for the time being,” he added.

Meanwhile, SPI Asset Management managing partner Stephen Innes expects the ringgit to remain defensive, citing another rise in US yields and no apparent change in Chinese policymakers’ stringent zero-Covid restrictions.

Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded mostly lower against a basket of major currencies.

It depreciated against the Singapore dollar to 3.1236/1275 from Monday’s 3.1228/1240 but rose versus the Japanese yen to 3.3046/3087 from 3.3569/3579.

The local unit decreased vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.5624/5689 from 5.5303/5316 and dipped against the euro to 4.6130/6184 from 4.5867/5878.