KUALA LUMPUR, April 28 — The ringgit ended lower on Thursday as investors continued to move funds to safe haven on prolonged volatility amid more hawkish central banks following rising inflation.

Today’s focus is on the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) decision on its monetary policy.

It defies the prevailing global trend by keeping its negative interest rate policy of -0.1 per cent and maintaining the Japanese Government Bonds (JGBs) purchases in order to ensure that the 10-yr yields will remain near zero.

Consequently, the yen weakened by 1.66 per cent to 130.56 at the time of writing, concurrently with other Asian currencies when their currencies fell against the greenback.

At 6 pm, the local note slipped to 4.3630/3650 versus the US dollar from yesterday’s close of 4.3565/3605.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the ringgit had surpassed its immediate resistance level of 4.35.

"The ringgit is already in an oversold position, suggesting that further downside risks could be limited.

"Market participants may have been fully priced in the expected 50-basis points hike in the Fed Funds Rate next week when the Federal Open Market Committee reconvene on May 3 and 4,” he told Bernama.

Meanwhile, the ringgit has improved against a basket of major currencies to trade higher at the close.

The local note strengthened versus the Japanese yen to 3.3412/3430 from Wednesday’s close of 3.4056/4090 and rose against the euro to 4.5894/5915 from 4.6236/6278 yesterday.

It appreciated against the Singapore dollar to 3.1488/1507 from yesterday’s close of 3.1592/1625 and increased vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.4590/4615 from 5.4844/4894 previously. — Bernama