A dealer said the local unit is likely to move within a tight range of between 3.15 and 3.16 next week on extended worries over the growing negative news over the U.S. economy. "There is no fresh impetus to drive the ringgit in any direction. But any unhealthy news in the U.S. for sure will downgrade the greenback's value in overseas markets, hence the ringgit is likely to ride on this weakness," she noted. The dealer felt that if there is any fall in the ringgit it will just be a reaction to a number of a major economic data and corporate earnings in the U.S. which are expected to be released next week. Among them are data on retail sales, inflation and housing. Furthermore, the dealer said, investors are eyeing closely the outcome of the meeting of the G7 or Group of Seven rich nations on how they intended to tackle weaknesses in the global economy amid turmoil in the credit markets, including the weakness of the greenback. Another dealer said an additional support factor for the ringgit is that the U.S. dollar is likely to continue to downswing on expectations of a fresh cut in the U.S. interest rates at the Fed policy meeting on April 29-30. "A further cut may prompt another round of sell-off on the greenback as investors are losing their confidence in the U.S. markets. This is likely to keep the ringgit steady at the 3.15 level," according to the dealer. He also said investors prefer to invest in Asian countries, including Malaysia, where interest rates are expected to trend higher, so they can potentially gain higher yields. However, the dealer believed the ringgit's gain could plateau in the event of a Bank Negara Malaysia intervention to manage the ringgit's rise in a "slow and steady" manner. "The central bank may come in to support the ringgit and keep the currency at the 3.15 level, which is considered to be a comfortable level," he noted. During the week, the ringgit was traded steadily before it hit a new 10-year high of 3.15 against the U.S. dollar on Thursday. Its previous 10-year high against the greenback was on March 13 when it struck 3.1560. The surprise surge was in tandem with the strengthening Singapore dollar following its latest monetary policy to speed up the rise in that currency as move to combat inflation. This also forced other Asian currencies upwards due to their high correlation to the Singapore dollar. Hence, the ringgit's trend will be closely aligned to other Asian currencies' movement, especially the Singapore dollar, the dealer said. He also said the strengthening of the ringgit will be in tandem with the expected continued rise of the local stock market, especially in plantation stocks. On Friday's closing, the ringgit remained at its 10-year high against the U.S. dollar. On a week-to-week basis, the ringgit strengthened against the greenback at 3.1500/1540 compared with the previous Friday's 3.1920/1940. It was stronger against the Japanese yen at 3.0955/0004 from 3.1155/1187 as well as against the British pound at 6.2244/2336 from 6.3827/3896. Also, the local unit appreciated against the euro at 4.9868/9934 from 5.0137/0178. However, against the Singapore dollar, the ringgit was slightly lower at 2.3181/3230 from 2.3045/3090 previously. -- BERNAMA yvan your source for cost of living index currency calculator | liquidity | euro currency | capital management | online broker | money market | money order | cash flow | get rich | mortgage broker | lost money | currency convert | big rich | fast cash loan | euro 2004 | day after tomorrow | currency rate | thought of the day | euro uefa | the euro dollar | beauty trend | cost of living index | sitemap PDF sitemap (c) Copyright 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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