KUALA LUMPUR, March 1 — The ringgit opened lower against the US dollar on Monday, hobbled partly by the domino effect of risk-off sentiment on the crude oil market as investors turned cautious ahead of next week’s Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) meeting.

At 9am, the ringgit stood at 4.0530/0580 against the US dollar from Friday’s close of 4.0450/0443.

A dealer said the Opec+ meeting scheduled on March 4 is an increasingly essential ingredient, with producers facing the tricky task of sorting through the various moving parts to form a strategy that makes everyone happy.

"The US dollar is marginally weaker across most currencies as the sell-off in US yields has abated after some central bank have been sabre-rattling while oil prices are pushing higher due to the passing of the US stimulus bill in US Congress.

"With that in mind, I would expect the recent sell-off on the ringgit to abate somewhat and ringgit sentiment to turn more cautiously positive as risk try to recover this morning,” Axi chief global market strategist Stephen Innes told Bernama.

However, he said that a benign US dollar and loose US financial conditions are essential foundations for the local note.

These should remain supportive for most of 2021 on the Federal Reserve lower-for-the-longer view, he said.

Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded lower against other major currencies.

It fell against the Singapore dollar to 3.0469/0509 from 3.0443/0490 on Friday and weakened versus the British pound to 5.6677/6763 from 5.6395/6473.

The ringgit decreased against the euro to 4.9005/9069 from 4.9054/9127 and depreciated vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.8056/8107 from 3.7985/8035 previously. — Bernama