THE ringgit maintained its positive momentum against the US dollar in early trading session today, as growing concerns over the global economic outlook shifted more investors towards emerging currencies, including the ringgit, dealers said.

At 9.20am, the local note rose to 4.4370/4405 versus the greenback compared with yesterday’s closing rate of 4.4530/4580.

ActivTrades trader Dyogenes Rodrigues Diniz said most experts had believed the United States Federal Reserve would not raise its interest rates yesterday, given the current fragility of the banking sector.

“However, the Fed did decide to hike interest rates from 4.75 to 5.0%. This is the second increase of just 0.25% the Fed has adopted, signalling a systematic decrease in interest rate hikes,” he told Bernama.

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

The local note appreciated versus the British pound to 5.4531/4574 from 5.4696/4758 at yesterday’s close, but slipped vis-a-vis the euro to 4.8292/8330 from 4.8026/8080 and weakened against the Japanese yen to 3.3899/3928 from 3.3592/3633 previously. 

At the same time, the ringgit traded mixed against Asean currencies. 

The local currency depreciated against the Thai baht to 12.9931/13.0105 from 12.9297/9506 yesterday and went down versus the Singapore dollar to 3.3406/3435 from 3.3363/3406.

However, it rose against the Indonesian rupiah to 289.10/289.50 from 290.10/290.60 yesterday and moved up versus the Philippine peso to 8.13/8.14 from 8.16/8.18 previously. – Bernama, March 23, 2023.