KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit rode on last Friday’s decline in the US dollar index (DXY) to begin the week on a positive note but is not expected to chalk significant gains today.
According to Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist and social finance head Afzanizam Rashid, the ringgit should trade at RM4.53 to RM4.54 against the US dollar today.
The local note rose to 4.5430/4.5500 to the US dollar in the first 10 minutes of trade today, from last Friday’s close of 4.5515/4.5565.
Afzanizam told Bernama the weaker-than-expected US non-farm payroll (NFP) figures showed a softening of the US labour market.
“An average of 258,000 new jobs were created per month in the first seven months of the year, a significant decrease from the 463,000 per month in the same period in 2022,” he said.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded lower against a basket of major currencies.
It dropped against the Japanese yen to 3.2045/3.2097 from 3.1898/3.1935 at the close last Friday, weakened versus the euro to 4.9996/5.0073 from 4.9816/4.9871 last week and declined vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.7941/5.8031 from 5.7836/5.7899 previously.
At the same time, the local unit was traded mostly lower against other Asean currencies.
The ringgit appreciated against the Indonesian rupiah to 299.4/300.0 from 299.9/300.5 on Friday, but slid against the Singapore dollar to 3.3911/3.3965 from 3.3891/3.3933, depreciated vis-a-vis the Philippines’ peso to 8.17/8.18 from 8.16/8.17 last week and slipped against the Thai baht to 13.1020/13.1279 from 13.0835/13.1043 previously.