Ringgit likely to remain steady next week

The ringgit is likely to remain steady against the US dollar next week, as sentiment indicates investors are more likely to garner gold rather than the greenback, dealers said.

Maybank Investment Bank Bhd Dealer Representative Assistant Manager, Ahmad Ruim Mohd Noor, told Bernama the US dollar index was in a short-term downtrend.

On the impact of UK exiting European Union on the Brent crude, Ahmad Ruim said, most UK workers who were employed by European oil companies worked in EU countries and vice versa.

"There will be an increase in bureaucracy if UK exit EU (Brexit) and the workers will have different status. With the different status it could increase costs for the employers and there would also be trade barriers as it would negatively impact oil companies.

He said the ringgit was likely to remain steady next week, trading at between the 3.95 and 3.98 level against the US dollar.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the local unit was higher at 4.0700/0760 against the US dollar from 4.1430/1480 in the previous week.

It also ended higher against other currencies.

The ringgit was up against the yen to 3.8030/8104 from last Friday's 3.8058/8121 and increased against the Singapore dollar to 3.0004/0059 from 3.0098/0154 previously.

It appreciated against the euro to 4.5987/6071 from 4.6182/6250 last week and improved against the British pound to 5.8767/8862 from 5.9788/9876 last Friday.