Ringgit under pressure from coronavirus worries

KUALA LUMPUR: Fears of China's novel coronavirus outbreak and its potential impact to the world's growth continued to ​​​​​pressure the ringgit to open lower against the US dollar on Tuesday.

At 9.01 am, the ringgit stood at 4.1200/1230 against the US dollar from 4.1125/1155 on Monday.

AxiCorp's chief market strategist Stephen Innes said the virus outbreak and the economic, as well as the lingering trade uncertainties as a result of the epidemic, has brought pressure on the local currency due to Malaysia's close trade ties with China.

"All this is happening on the back of evidence that the outbreak is significantly impacting the global economy, with China, the worst-hit, local ASEAN currencies are predictably feeling the most pressure and local commodity exporters especially," he told Bernama.

Innes said the markets are hoping for a strong Chinese yuan fix from the People’s Bank of China to boost the currency.

Against other major currencies, the ringgit was traded mixed.

It rose against the Singapore dollar to 3.0023/0055 from 3.0051/0084 on Monday and depreciated vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.7930/7969 from 3.7896/7931.

The local currency weakened against the euro to 4.5563/5613 from 4.5529/5579 but better than the British pound at 5.3523/3566 from 5.3792/3839 previously. - Bernama