Ringgit bullish despite long holiday

KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit has continued to rise against the US dollar, opening higher on the first trading day of the last trading week for the year, although the ongoing long holiday season saw many investors on the sidelines, an analyst said.

At 9.05 am, the ringgit rose to 4.6145/6205 against the US dollar from Friday’s close of 4.6265/6305.

SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes said that the ringgit is poised to perform better, considering the softer inflation outlook in the United States (US) and the likelihood of further policy easing by G10 central banks.

“While today’s trading session is expected to be calm (due to the long holiday), I anticipate that the ringgit will exhibit a bullish bias, although achieving substantial gains may be challenging unless an unexpected catalyst emerges beyond the current momentum of anticipated US interest rate cuts.

“Investors were also given a holiday present in the form of a more moderate inflation report by the US Federal Reserve last Friday. However, since the market had already factored in a reduction of 150 basis points, the response in the foreign exchange (FX) markets has been relatively subdued,” he told BK.

Meanwhile, the ringgit also traded higher against a basket of major currencies.

It appreciated against the British pound to 5.8609/8685 from 5.8720/8770 at Friday’s close, rose vis-a-vis the euro to 5.0852/0918 from 5.0915/0959 last week, and was higher against the Japanese yen at 3.2435/2482 from 3.2547/2579 previously.

The local note had also strengthened against other Asian currencies.

The ringgit increased vis-à-vis against the Singapore dollar to 3.4840/4890 from 3.4933/4968 at Friday’s close and rose against the Indonesian rupiah to 297.9/298.5 from 298.7/299.1 previously.

It had also appreciated against the Thai baht to 13.3102/3359 from 13.3509/3706 last week and was stronger against the Philippines’ peso to 8.33/8.36 from 8.35/8.36 previously. – BK