FOREX: Ringgit Expected To Trade Lower Against US Dollar Next Week

KUALA LUMPUR, May 22 (Bernama) -- The ringgit is expected to trade lower against the US dollar next week although exporters are likely to offload their dollar positions, dealers said.

They said the ringgit is expected to trade between the 3.3500 and 3.3600 level next week, down from 3.3180/3230 on Friday.

"Exporters are anticipated to have interest to sell their dollar positions although the European debt crisis will continue to be a dampener in the foreign exchange markets worldwide," said RHB Bank's forex dealer Badeeudin Mohd Abu Bakar.

Market players are adopting a wait-and-see attitude for any fresh developments over the weekend before deciding on their next move, he said.

Another dealer said the market was worried about a possible contagion.

"However, the underlying sentiment for the ringgit is still intact," he said.

For the week just ended, Germany's move to ban naked short-selling of bonds, credit default swaps and bank shares contributed to the ringgit's movement as the euro-zone debt crisis largely continued to set the forex market direction.

The ringgit strengthened to 3.3180/3230 against the US dollar on Friday from 3.1835/1860 a week earlier.

The local unit went down against the Singapore dollar to 2.3534/3603 from 2.3079/3160 and against the Japanese yen to 3.6858/6918 from 3.4457/4511 previously.

It also weakened against the pound sterling to 4.7802/7881 from 4.6424/6477 last week and the euro to 4.1488/1561 from 3.9818/9865 previously