Ringgit falls to touch 4.4 mark against US dollar

The ringgit went lower, touching the 4.4030 mark against the US dollar as investors responded to the US Federal Reserve System's (Fed) Chair Janet Yellen's remark yesterday signalling that the US interest rate may rise soon.

At 10 am, the ringgit was trading at 4.4030/4100 against the US dollar.

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has taken measures to stem the volatility in the foreign exchange market.

Mercury Security Sdn Bhd's Head of Research, Edmund Tham, said even though the central bank reiterated that the onshore rate of the currency was the right reference price and told locally-licensed banks not to facilitate any ringgit non-deliverable forward, or offshore rate, the ringgit still fell further.

"The question now is we need to see what BNM can do to stabilise and strenghten the ringgit value against the US dollar.

"The selling pressure of the ringgit and the downtrend of other emerging currencies market continue to happen because there the US dollar is steadily strengthening.

"The situation must be examined and hoped BNM will act on this as there is nothing that the public can do," he told Bernama today.

At 9.10 am today, the ringgit was trading at 4.3950/4020 against the greenback from 4.3900/3970 on Thursday.

-- BERNAMA