Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist and social finance head Afzanizam Rashid said anxiety was already palpable in the market at the start of trading today.

He said there were fears that the Fed would maintain its more restrictive monetary stance in its attempt to bring inflation down.

He noted that other major central banks were similarly hawkish as the global liquidity environment remained tight.

He also expects concerns over global economic prospects to keep investors pursuing safe haven currencies and this would keep the ringgit weak.

The local currency began the day at 4.6485/4.6525 against the greenback, down from 4.6385/4.6425 at yesterday’s close.

The ringgit was also traded lower against a basket of major currencies.

It depreciated versus the British pound to 5.9310/5.9361 from 5.9220/5.9271 at yesterday’s close, fell against the Japanese yen to 3.2810/3.2840 from 3.2751/3.2781 yesterday and weakened vis-a-vis the euro to 5.0743/5.0787 from 5.0676/5.0719 previously.

Similarly, the local note traded mostly lower against other Asean currencies.

While, it inched up against the Thai baht to 13.3152/13.3378 from yesterday’s 13.3486/13.3666, it went down against the Singapore dollar to 3.4540/3.4590 against 3.4490/3.4556 previously.

It also fell versus the Indonesian rupiah to 308.9/309.4 from 308.5/309.2 and dropped against the Philippines’ peso to 8.31/8.33 from 8.30/8.32 yesterday.