KUALA LUMPUR – The ringgit kick-started the week on a positive note, opening higher against the US dollar today as the US Dollar Index (DXY) declined on Friday last week.
At 9.10am, the local note rose to 4.5430/5500 against the greenback compared with 4.5515/5565 at Friday’s close.
Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist and social finance head Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the DXY declined as the United States (US) Nonfarm Payroll (NFP) figures fell short of expectations, with only 187,000 jobs added compared to the consensus estimate of 200,000.
“This showed a softening in the US labour market as evident in the average job creation of 258,000 per month for the first seven months, a significant decrease from the 463,000 per month in the same period in 2022,” he told Bernama.
As such, Afzanizam expects the ringgit to be traded within a narrow range of RM4.53-RM4.54 today.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded lower against a basket of major currencies.
It dropped against the Japanese yen to 3.2045/2097 from 3.1898/1935 at the close last Friday, weakened versus the euro to 4.9996/0073 from 4.9816/9871 last week and declined vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.7941/8031 from 5.7836/7899 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 3.3911/3965 from 3.3891/3933, 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 13.1020/1279 from 13.0835/1043 previously. – Bernama, August 7, 2023
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