THE ringgit extended its positive run against the US dollar today as the greenback weakened due to the lower-than-expected United States inflation data last month.

At 9am, the local note climbed 310 percentage in points to 4.6190/6230 against the greenback compared with 4.6500/6535 at yesterday’s close.

According to news reports, the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) declined to 3% last month from 4% in May, slightly below the market expectation of 3.1%. 

ActivTrades trader Dyogenes Rodrigues Diniz said the CPI announcement showed that the monetary policy adopted by the Federal Reserve has had the desired effect and investors were already beginning to wonder when the Fed would start lowering interest rates.

“From a technical point of view, the USD/MYR could drop to the region of 4.5750 and 4.5250 over the next few weeks,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist and social finance head Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the US Dollar Index (DXY) continued to decline to 100.568 points while the 10-year US Treasury yield fell about 10 basis points to 3.86%.

“Against such a backdrop, the ringgit should regain more ground as the Fed might shift its monetary policy stance at some point in the future,” he explained. 

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

It slipped against the Japanese yen to 3.3345/3377 from 3.3300/3327 at yesterday’s close and weakened vis-a-vis the euro to 5.1446/1491 from 5.1262/1300, but rose against the British pound to 6.0005/6.0057 from 6.0120/0165 yesterday.

The local note also traded mixed against other Asean currencies.

The ringgit firmed versus the Singapore dollar to 3.4727/4762 from yesterday’s close of 3.4753/4782 and gained against the Indonesian rupiah to 306.3/306.8 from 308.4/308.8 previously.

However, the local note depreciated against the Thai baht to 13.3243/3420 from 13.3173/3338 and was unchanged against the Philippine peso at 8.46/8.47. – Bernama, July 13, 2023.