KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24 – The dealers said that the ringgit continued to fall against the US dollar on Monday following the collapse of world oil prices. At 5pm, the local currency was quoted at 4.2475 / 0415 last year compared to US dollar from 4.1800 / 1880 last Friday.
A dealer said that the continued fall in global crude oil benchmark, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent again triggered selling ringgit currency and other emerging economies relative to crude oil exports. He said the oil prices continue to decline today, with WTI hitting a daily low as US $ 39 a barrel while Brent dropped as low as US $ 44 per barrel.
“Concerns over China’s economy continues to affect global risk appetite and increasing concerns over the outlook for global oil demand,” he said. In the same time, another dealer said that while banks continue to dump holdings of local currency due to the outflow of portfolio, asset managers will also appear at any time to start collecting assets oversold.
“The situation today is different than during the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis. The Malaysian economy is much stronger now,” he said. The ringgit, which hit 4.25 against the dollar for the first time since the Asian financial crisis 17 years ago, also traded lower against a basket of other major currencies.
The ringgit depreciated against the Singapore dollar to 3.0143 / 0229 from 2.9694 / 9753 yesterday and lower against the yuan to 3.5295 / 5390 from 3.3981 / 4060. The local unit also depreciated against the pound sterling to 6.6876 / 7042 from 6.5672 / 5814 and lower against the euro to 4.8826 / 8950 from 4.7033 / 7132 last Friday.
