KUALA LUMPUR: Both the ringgit and Bursa Malaysia got off to a poor start this morning.
The ringgit was dragged down by an increasingly hawkish stance on inflation and interest rate in the US Federal Reserve.
This boosted demand for the greenback, leading the local note to fall to 4.4735/4.4790 against the US dollar just a minute into the new trading day. It closed at 4.4730/4.4780 yesterday.
On the stock market, profit-taking by investors led to a 1.38-point drop to 1,454.11 points in the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) at 9.19am.
The key index closed at 1,456.73 points yesterday.