KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit finished flat against the US dollar on Monday as the market focused on the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) January 2024 meeting minutes to see what transpired at the first policy meeting of 2024, said AmBank Group Economic Research.
At 6 pm, the ringgit/greenback exchange rate stood at 4.7750/7795, unchanged from last Friday’s close.
AmBank said in a note that the outcome from the FOMC meeting would set the tone for the remaining months of the year.
"However, the lack of clear guidance on the outlook for rate cuts supported the US Dollar Index. The January FOMC meeting minutes showed policymakers were somewhat cautious about lowering the rates too quickly,” it said.
At the close today, the ringgit was traded easier against a basket of major currencies.
The local currency eased vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.1696/1728 from last Friday’s 3.1677/1709, fell against the British pound to 6.0552/0609 from 6.0437/0494 previously, and slipped versus the euro to 5.1756/1805 from 5.1656/1705.
Meanwhile, the ringgit performed mixed against other Asean currencies.
It weakened versus the Thai baht to 13.3190/3375 compared with 13.2198/2381 last Friday and was down against the Singapore dollar at 3.5523/5559 compared to 3.5489/5525 previously.
However, the local note gained versus the Philippine peso to 8.51/8.52 from 8.54/8.55 at Friday’s close and improved vis-a-vis the Indonesian rupiah to 305.4/305.9 from 306.1/306.5 at the end of last week. - Bernama
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