Ringgit gives up gains against US dollar

KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit gave up earlier gains to close slightly lower against the US dollar today, as mild profit taking emerged amid a weaker greenback on gloomy growth prospects, dealers said.

At 6pm, the local unit stood at 4.0830/0860 against the greenback from 4.0770/0800 on last Friday.

Asian currencies were mixed in thin trading as the South Korean won rose 0.29% and the Taiwan dollar gained 0.06%, while China's renminbi eased 0.19%, the Indonesian rupiah trimmed 0.13% and Thai baht slipped 0.1%.

"US economic data released on Friday came in below estimates. This has led dollar traders to sell their greenback," a dealer told Bernama.

He said prospects of a hike in the overnight policy rate by Bank Negara Malaysia next year also helped softened the impact of safe-currencies accumulation.

The local market was closed yesterday for the Christmas holiday.

Meanwhile, the ringgit traded mostly lower against a basket of major currencies, expect for the British pound, as the local unit rose to 5.4561/4605 from the 5.4587/4639 recorded on Friday.

The ringgit fell against the Singapore dollar to 3.0366/0402 from 3.0317/0346, depreciated against the yen to 3.6031/6067 from 3.5965/5998 and weakened against the euro to 4.8420/8472 from 4.8304/8344. — Bernama