The ringgit opened higher on Tuesday but is likely to be traded cautiously today as the market will be watching the Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) Monetary Policy Committee meeting on Thursday, along with the US Non-Farm Payroll (NFP) report on Friday.
At 10am, the ringgit was at 4.2250, down 0.07% against the US dollar since it opened in early trade on Tuesday.
Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Afzanizam Rashid expects BNM to maintain the overnight policy rate (OPR) at 2.75%.
BNM has made previous cuts, and he is confident that the level of monetary policy accommodation is sufficient to support growth.
He added that the market is keen to see the central bank’s latest assessment of the current state of the economy and its prospects.
For now, the NFP is a key gauge for the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) decision on Sept 17, especially given the significant downward revisions in the June and May rounds.
The ringgit is trading between RM4.21 and RM4.22 today as the US dollar has shown a depreciating trend against other major currencies.
At the same time, the ringgit opened mostly lower against a basket of major currencies.
It strengthened against the Japanese yen to 2.869/2.8758 from 2.8708/2.8741 last Friday, depreciated against the British pound to 5.7171/5.7300 from 5.6833/5.6894 and weakened against the euro to 4.9443/4.9554 from 4.9291/4.9343.
The ringgit was mostly lower against other Asean currencies.
It depreciated against the Indonesian rupiah to 257.0/257.7 from 255.9/256.3, fell against the Singapore dollar to 3.2875/3.2952 from 3.2859/3.2899 and depreciated against the Thai baht to 13.0601/13.0976 from 13.0327/13.0519 last Friday.
The local currency strengthened against the Philippine peso to 7.37/7.40 from 7.39/7.40 last Friday.
