KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 5): The ringgit opened lower amid worries over the number of daily Covid-19 cases in the country, which reached a record high of 19,819 infections yesterday.
At 9.07am, the local note had weakened to 4.2240/2270 versus the greenback from yesterday’s close at 4.2180/2230.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said the number of vaccination doses administered per day had also dropped below the 500,000-dose mark of late.
The weakness in the ringgit also coincided with a rise in US crude stockpiles by 3.6 million barrels in the week to July 30 to 439.2 million barrels, the US Energy Information Administration’s Weekly Petroleum Status Report showed.
“Analysts tracked by Investing.com had expected a drawdown of 3.1 million barrels instead,” he told Bernama.
Adam said the weekly build in crude suggested that demand for energy might be slowing as Covid-19 caseloads across the world were ramping again from the Delta variant of the virus.-BERNAMA