At 6pm, the local note improved to 4.7340/4.7385 against the greenback from yesterday’s close of 4.7385/4.7420.

SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes said the local note opened a bit stronger but declined during the day after districts in Guangzhou imposed varying levels of curbs and lockdowns.

“This should dim any hope of a near-term change in China’s zero Covid policy. The ringgit is trading in a tight range ahead of the US midterm elections, but more importantly, the US consumer price index (CPI) is squarely on the radar,” he told Bernama.

He elaborated that CPI is likely to be the most crucial data point for the federal open market committee’s (FOMC) meeting in December.

“It is a sensitive marker for the FOMC on how high to take interest rates. So, there is a lot of trepidation about giving up long US dollar positions versus ringgit ahead of the data point,” he added.

Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded lower against a basket of major currencies.

It depreciated further against the Singapore dollar to 3.3744/3.3781 from 3.3731/3.3761 yesterday and decreased vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.2371/3.2404 from 3.2303/3.2329 previously.

The local currency also weakened against the euro to 4.7345/4.7390 from 4.7323/4.7358 at yesterday’s close and eased versus the British pound to 5.4389/5.4441 from 5.4227/5.4267.