Ringgit Seen Remaining Soft Against US Dollar Next Week

By Abdul Hamid A Rahman

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 14 (Bernama) -- The ringgit is expected to remain soft against the US dollar next week as the greenback remains well supported by expectations of further interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve (Fed).

Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the greenback is expected to maintain its strength amid the Fed's hawkish monetary policy stance. “Investor sentiment continues to favour the greenback amid expectations of a sizeable interest rate hike by the Fed in December. Market participants will also be closely monitoring the release of US retail sales data for October on Nov 17, with consensus estimates pointing to a 0.2 per cent month-on-month increase, compared with 0.8 per cent in September,” he told Bernama.

Mohd Afzanizam expects the ringgit to trade between RM4.07 and RM4.10 against the US dollar next week.

Meanwhile, on a Friday-to-Friday basis, the ringgit depreciated against the greenback to 4.0845/0890 from 4.0565/0610 a week earlier.

The local currency traded higher against a basket of other major currencies during the week.

It rose vis-à-vis the Japanese yen to 2.5549/5579 from 2.5616/5646 on the previous Friday, gained against the British pound to 5.4046/4106 from 5.4304/4365, and strengthened versus the euro to 4.5166/5216 from 4.5315/5365.

The ringgit also traded mostly higher against ASEAN currencies.

It increased against the Thai baht to 12.0611/0833 from 12.0898/1105 at the end of last week, rose vis-à-vis the Philippine peso to 6.41/6.42 from 6.43/6.44, and edged up against the Indonesian rupiah to 224.3/224.6 from 224.2/224.6.

However, the local note eased against the Singapore dollar to 3.1729/1769 from 3.1657/1694 a week earlier.

-- BERNAMA