Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Afzanizam Rashid said the ringgit appears to be well supported as the latest data indicated that the Federal Reserve (Fed) may not pursue a hawkish stance moving forward.

However, the Fed may be inclined to maintain a high lending rate for a while in order to clamp down inflation.

“US manufacturing continues to exhibit further weaknesses in June. The index has been below the 50-point demarcation line for eight months in a row since November last year, indicating that manufacturers had become pessimistic in the first half of 2023.

“Such reading suggests that the past monetary tightening had taken a toll on the economic activities with inflation as reflected by the core personal consumption expenditure (PCE) which moderated to 4.6% in May from as high as 5.4% in February 2022,” he told Bernama.

At 9am, the local unit rose marginally to 4.6635/4.6670 versus the greenback compared to 4.6640/4.6690 at yesterday’s close.

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

It fell vis-a-vis the euro to 5.0879/5.0917 from 5.0791/5.0845 at Monday’s close, weakened against the Japanese yen to 3.2280/3.2307 from 3.2252/3.2289 and decreased versus the British pound to 5.9212/5.9257 from 5.9088/5.9152 previously.

The local note also traded mostly lower against other Asean currencies.

The ringgit was down against the Singapore dollar to 3.4539/3.4570 versus 3.4482/3.4521 on Monday, slipped against the Thai baht to 13.3098/13.3263 from 13.2357/13.2563 and fell against the Philippine peso to 8.44/8.46 from 8.43/8.44.

It was flat against the Indonesian rupiah at 310.2/310.6 from 310.2/310.7 on Monday.