Ringgit opens lower against US$ on lack of demand

KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit opened lower against the US dollar on Monday due to lack of buying demand as the US Dollar Index continued to strengthen.

At 9.05 am, the ringgit stood at 4.7570/7620 versus the greenback compared with last Friday's close of 4.7155/7185.

SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes told Bernama that the ringgit will experience a bit of a setback this week as the solid US jobs data saw the greenback continuing to gain traction.

Against a basket of major currencies, the ringgit was traded mostly higher.

It improved against the Japanese Yen to 3.1999/2035 from 3.2142/2164 at last Friday's close, appreciated against the British pound to 5.9976/6.0039 from 6.0160/0199 and increased versus the euro to 5.1252/1306 from 5.1352/1384 previously.

However, the local note traded mostly lower against other Asean currencies.

The local unit eased against the Singapore dollar to 3.5379/5418 versus 3.5309/5334 on Friday, declined against the Indonesian rupiah to 303.7/304.2 from 301.0/301.4 and fell against the Philippine peso to 8.48/8.49 from 8.43/8.44 previously.

It rose against the Thai baht to 13.3436/3640 from 13.3735/3873 last Friday. - Bernama