KUALA LUMPUR – The ringgit opened higher against the US dollar today, buoyed by rising buying interest despite the falling crude oil price, said an analyst.
At 9am, the local currency appreciated to 4.4410/4440 versus the greenback from yesterday’s close of 4.4545/4570.
The analyst said the ringgit is expected to rebound against the US dollar when Malaysia’s macro fundamentals improve by year-end.
The rebound will also be backed by the inversion of the interest rate gap between Bank Negara Malaysia and the United States Federal Reserve, substantial downward pressure on geopolitical conflicts, and improving confidence.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded lower against a basket of major currencies.
It fell against the Singapore dollar to 3.2392/2419 from 3.2333/2356 at yesterday’s close and depreciated versus the British pound to 5.4216/4252 from 5.3828/3858 previously.
The local currency also fell vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.3446/3471 from 3.3004/3025 yesterday and weakened against the euro at 4.5733/5764 from 4.5547/5573 at yesterday’s closing.
Bursa Malaysia opened broadly higher this morning, reversing yesterday’s losses as investors’ risk appetites recovered following the lower-than-expected inflation data from the US.
At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 10.19 points to 1,502.52 from 1,492.33 at yesterday’s close.
The benchmark index opened 5.48 points better at 1,497.81.
Market breadth was positive with gainers trouncing losers 257 to 71, while 172 counters were unchanged, 1,783 untraded and 12 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 159.82 million units worth RM70.04 million.
The US’ Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, which measures inflation, came in at 8.5% in July – below the market’s forecast of 8.7% – suggesting that the country’s economy is recovering faster than expected.
The DJI Average jumped by 535 points and the Nasdaq gained 361 points, while the US 10-year yield remained unchanged at 2.78%.
Rakuten Trade vice-president of Equity Research, Thong Pak Leng said the lower CPI reading provides some breathing space for the US Federal Reserves to hike rates aggressively.
“In view of the robust performance on Wall Street overnight, we reckon the FBM KLCI to reverse recent weakness and expect the index to hover in the 1,495-1,510 range today.
“We believe buying interest may also emerge for technology stocks after the recent selling activities,” he said.
Two-thirds of the 30-index linked counters recorded gains this morning, led by Inari which rose by 2.83% or eight sen to RM2.90, while Petronas Chemicals was the biggest contributor to the rise in the composite index at 2.32 points after the counter gained 17 sen to RM8.89.
Meanwhile, Maybank added five sen to RM8.95, Public Bank bagged four sen to RM4.67, CIMB and Tenaga perked three sen each to RM5.33 and RM8.46, respectively, while IHH Healthcare was flat at RM6.42.
Of the actives, G3 Global inched up half-a-sen to four sen, Dagang Nexchange was two sen higher at 89 sen, SFP rose four sen to 98 sen and Infoline edged up 1.5 sen to 38 sen, while Sapura Energy was flat at five sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 78.41 points to 10,640.15, the FBMT 100 Index garnered 74.39 points to 10,388.56, the FBM Emas Shariah Index advanced 83.91 points to 10,753.21, the FBM 70 soared 106.53 points to 12,658.63 and the FBM ACE bagged 35.44 points to 4,867.07.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index climbed 97.92 points to 16,747.53, the Energy Index picked up 4.7 points to 651.34, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 2.48 points to 183.43 and the Plantation Index went up 23.36 points to 7,147.23. – Bernama, August 11, 2022
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