Ringgit breaches the 4.0 level against US dollar

KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit closed lower today at 4.0020/0050 against the US dollar, the first time it breached the 4.0 level in more than five months.
Dealers said this was in tandem with other emerging Asian currencies, as sentiment was dampened by the weakness of equity markets.
The last time the local currency closed at the 4.0 level was on Jan 10, at 4.0020/0070 to the greenback.
At Monday's close, the ringgit was traded at 3.9960/9990.
A dealer said emerging-market currencies were feeling the heat from the latest wave of fear on escalating trade war between the US and China that had hit equity markets and boosted the appeal of safe-haven assets.
Meanwhile, Oanda Head of Trading in Asia-Pacific Stephen Innes said the regional sentiment was an enormous risk-off, and the local stock market toppled on global growth concerns.
He said despite the Chinese yuan also hitting a five-month low at 6.48 against the greenback, the ringgit only weakened slightly above 4.00 against the US dollar despite uncertainty over the fiscal deficit.
"The ringgit is better insulated from external trade shocks than its regional peers. But it should continue to trade with a negative bias as regional sentiment continues to wane.
"The local currency has weakened dramatically on the post-election outflows, so it is not suffering from the unwinding of short dollar risk as some of its regional peers," he told Bernama.
Innes added this partially explained the reasons that the ringgit held up relatively well today, considering all the regional negatives.
The local unit, however, was traded higher against a basket of currencies.
It advanced against the Singapore dollar to 2.9476/9507 from Monday's close of 2.9580/9611 and increased against the British pound to 5.2734/2778 versus 5.2935/2979.
The local unit improved against the euro to 4.6223/6274 from 4.6342/6384 on Monday, but fell vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.6431/6469 from 3.6147/6177 yesterday. — Bernama