At 8am, the local note remained unchanged at 4.2120/2170.
SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes said the market took another hit after the PBOC set the Chinese yuan’s daily reference rate weaker than anticipated, which is a deliberate move to curb the recent rally in the Chinese currency.
“The move caught many regional players off guard, adding downside momentum on the ringgit. With positioning heavily skewed toward short US dollar trades, the near-term outlook remains fragile, though any sharp moves are likely to be limited over the next 24 hours,” he added.
Innes said investors are now turning their focus to upcoming US data, with Friday’s personal consumption expenditure (PCE) inflation print and next week’s non-farm payrolls (NFP) to gauge whether the US Federal Reserve (Fed) will take cautionary action with its policy.
“Until then, the ringgit is likely to remain under pressure, reflecting the Fed’s pushback on dovish economic outlooks and a softer regional markets backdrop,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Afzanizam Rashid said the US Dollar Index (DXY) continues to remain elevated, rising 0.43% to 97.687 points as the Fed is seen to be cautious about reducing the Fed fund rates.
“At the same time, data on the US housing market for new home sales jumped to 800,000 units during August, exceeding the consensus forecast of 650,000 and July’s figure of 652,000.
“As such, the ringgit is likely to remain soft in the near term, hovering around RM4.21 and RM4.23,” Afzanizam said.
At the opening, the ringgit was higher against a basket of major currencies.
It rose to 2.8310/2.8346 against the Japanese yen from 2.8400/2.8436 at Wednesday’s close, but eased to 5.6647/5.6714 versus the British pound from 5.6761/5.6828 and inched down to 4.9453/4.9512 against the euro from 4.9567/4.9626.
However, the local note was mixed against Asean currencies.
It advanced to 3.2687/3.2731 versus the Singapore dollar from 3.2724/3.2738 and appreciated to 13.1109/13.1334 against the Thai baht from 13.1572/13.1781.
It remained unchanged against the Indonesian rupiah and the Philippine peso at 252.4/252.8 and 7.33/7.34, respectively.