Malaysian Ringgit Likely To Strengthen Against US Dollar

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 24 (Bernama) -- The ringgit is expected to strengthen against the US dollar next week on bullish external factors, dealers said. They said the ringgit was likely to move in tandem with regional currencies on optimism over global equity outlook following European Central Bank's aggressive funding operation and stronger US data. A dealer said the market players had been reluctant to buy Asian currencies recently and were cautious about their outlook for coming months due to concerns about the impact of the eurozone's debt crisis on Asian economies. "I think the Asian currencies might rise if the euro starts to recover," he said. For the week just-ended, the ringgit recorded a yo-yo performance against the US dollar. It started the week on negative note, appreciated on Tuesday and Wednesday, declined on Thursday and bounced back on Friday to close at the peak of the week at 3.1550/1600 compared with last week's 3.1770/1790. On Friday-to-Friday basis, the ringgit closed mixed against other major currencies. It fell against the Singapore dollar to 2.4403/4460 from 2.4360/4394 previously but firmed against the yen to 4.0423/0508 from 4.0767/0809 last week. Against the British pound, it depreciated at 4.9527/9615 from 4.9320/9360 previously but appreciated against the euro to 4.1242/1317 from 4.1377/1419 last week. The market will be closed on Monday for Christmas holiday. -- BERNAMA