Most Asian currencies also closed weaker against the US dollar today following Fitch Ratings’ downgrade of US sovereign credit, which spurred risk-off and safe-haven bids, said a dealer.

Fitch said that tax cuts and new spending initiatives, coupled with multiple economic shocks, have swelled US budget deficits.

It added that medium-term challenges related to rising entitlement costs in the country also remain largely unaddressed.

At 6pm, the local note weakened to 4.5400/4.5450 against the US dollar compared with 4.5175/4.5200 at yesterday’s close.

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

It dropped against the Japanese yen to 3.1824/3.1861 from 3.1666/3.1686 yesterday, weakened versus the euro to 4.9831/4.9886 from 4.9584/4.9612 and declined vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.7994/5.8085 from 5.7892/5.7924 previously.

At the same time, the local unit traded mostly lower against other Asean currencies.

The ringgit went down versus the Singapore dollar to 3.3944/3.3984 from 3.3872/3.3893 at the close on Tuesday but rose vis-a-vis the Philippine peso to 8.22/8.24 from 8.24/8.25 previously.

It depreciated against the Indonesian rupiah to 299.1/299.6 from 298.8/299.1 yesterday and was lower against the Thai baht at 13.2504/2716 from 13.1852/1982 previously.