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.
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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.
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“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