Analysts said this came as the July Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting minutes revealed that the Federal Reserve members were still concerned about inflation, which necessitated the prolonging of a restrictive monetary stance.

With China’s economy looking increasingly shaky and the Bank of Japan (BoJ) unlikely to budge from its accommodative monetary stance, the US dollar would continue to be the highly sought-after currency, said Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Afzanizam Rashid.

“On that note, the USD/MYR is expected to remain weak in the near- term and move between 4.62 and 4.63.

“The ringgit continues to flirt around its support level of 4.6257, with the resistance level currently at 4.7495,” he told Bernama.

Meanwhile, ActivTrades trader Dyogenes Rodrigues Diniz noted that if the rate hits above 4.6450, the ringgit-US dollar could move to the 4.6850 and 4.7450 levels.

Alternatively, if it breaks below 4.6130, the ringgit could appreciate around the 4.5750 level against the greenback, he added.

At 9am, the local note fell to 4.6420/4.6455 against the US dollar from 4.6265/4.6320 at yesterday’s close.

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

It improved versus the Japanese yen to 3.1708/3.1734 from 3.1782/3.1822 on Wednesday and rose versus the euro to 5.0459/5.0497 from 5.0549/5.0609, but inched down vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.9046/5.9091 from 5.9020/5.9090 at yesterday’s closing.

At the same time, the local unit was traded mixed against other Asean currencies.

The ringgit eased vis-a-vis the Singapore dollar to 3.4102/3.4130 from 3.4086/3.4132 on Wednesday but went up against the Thai baht to 13.0547/13.0693 from 13.0777/13.0995 previously.

It depreciated against the Philippine peso to 8.19/8.21 from 8.18/8.20 yesterday and declined versus the Indonesian rupiah to 303.7/304.1 from 302.7/303.2 previously.