Ringgit slips early Friday on doubts over Opec move

A customer counts her ringgit notes outside a money changer at the central business district in Singapore August 25, 2015. The Malaysian ringgit hit a fresh pre-peg 17-year low on Monday as sustained worries about Chinas economy dented global risk appetite with European and Wall Street stocks suffering their largest one-day drop in nearly four years. REUTERS/Edgar Su

KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit opened lower against the US dollar on Friday on the back of falling oil prices.

At 9am, the ringgit was quoted at 4.1450/1500 against the greenback from 4.1220/1270 on Thursday.

A dealer said investors questioned if members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would stand by the proposal to cut oil output in the formal meeting in Vienna in November this year.

They also doubted if the proposal would have much impact on the crude oil market oversupply, he said.

During the informal meeting that concluded in Algeria on Sept 29, the OPEC members proposed to reduce crude oil production to between 32.5 million and 33 million barrels a day, from the current 33.2 million barrels a day.

Scepticism over the deal led the overnight benchmark Brent crude oil prices to fall eight cents to US$49.16 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude oil prices went down eight cents to US$47.75 a barrel.

Meanwhile, the local note also traded lower against a basket of major currencies.

It fell against the British pound to 5.3690/3767 from Thursday's close of 5.3574/3647 and declined against the yen to 4.0983/1048 from 4.0647/0708.

The ringgit also eased against the Singapore dollar to 3.0333/0376 from 3.0227/0274 while weakening against the euro to 4.6441/6505 from 4.6228/6288 yesterday. - Bernama