Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said mixed signals from Fed officials continued to lend support to the US dollar.

“The US dollar-ringgit pair surpassed the RM4.20 level as the US Dollar Index rose 0.16% to 97.419 points,” he told Bernama, adding that this weighed on the ringgit and other regional currencies.

At the close, the ringgit was mostly lower against a basket of major currencies, except the Japanese yen.

At 6pm, the local note weakened to 4.2120/4.2170 against the greenback from Tuesday’s close of 4.1985/4.2000.

It strengthened to 2.8400/2.8436 against the Japanese yen from 2.8441/2.8453, but eased to 5.6761/5.6828 versus the British pound from 5.6701/5.6721 and slipped to 4.9567/4.9626 against the euro from 4.9546/4.9564 previously.

The local note was mixed against Asean currencies.

It appreciated to 13.1572/13.1781 against the Thai baht from 13.1900/13.2001, but weakened to 3.2743/3.2784 versus the Singapore dollar from 3.2724/3.2738, and declined to 252.4/252.8 against the Indonesian rupiah from 251.5/251.8.

It was flat against the Philippine peso at 7.33/7.34 compared with 7.33/7.33 yesterday.