The ringgit remained unchanged against the US dollar since yesterday as the market focused on the minutes of the January 2024 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting to see what happens at the first policy meeting of the year.
In addition, the ringgit also showed less results due to the lack of significant catalytic activity.
At 9.05 this morning, the local currency was pegged at 4.7775 against the US dollar from where it closed at 4.7750 yesterday.
According to the Chief Economist of Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd, Afzanizam Rashid said there is not much catalyst for the ringgit to rise even though technical indicators show that the local currency is in an oversold trend.
The tight monetary stance of the Federal Reserve (Fed) will continue to be the main pillar for the dollar to be strong in the long term.
He also said that the US Dollar Index seems to have leveled off after reaching its peak at 104,960 points on February 13 and is now hovering around 103,827 points.
Markets will now pay close attention to US personal consumption expenditure (PCE) inflation which will be published this Thursday.
For now, investors are more cautious at a time when the stance of the Fed's monetary policy is quite risky. The ringgit is expected to remain at RM4.77 throughout the day.
Meanwhile, the ringgit traded lower against a group of major currencies.
The local currency slipped against the Japanese yen to 3.1729/3.1751 from 3.1696/3.1728 at Monday's close, fell against the British pound to 6.0574/6.0612 from 6.0552/6.0609 and slipped to 5.182/5.185 from 5.182 previously.
The ringgit is also trading mostly low compared to other Asean currencies.
The local currency rose against the Thai baht to 13.3074/13.3217 from 13.3190/13.3375 yesterday.
However, it fell against the Singapore dollar at 3.5542/3.5567 compared to 3.5523/3.5559 at Monday's close, eased against the Philippine peso to 8.52/8.53 from 8.51/8.52 and eased against the Indonesian rupiah to 305.06/306. 305.4/305.9 previously.
