KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 — The ringgit fell against the US dollar at the close today following recent gains and after the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes of its last meeting showed that the American central bank will remain cautious in its approach to monetary policy, said an analyst.

At 6pm, the ringgit weakened to 4.6735/6805 against the greenback from yesterday’s close of 4.6505/6560.

Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said he believes the US interest rate is nearing its peak level. "We have seen that in the past few days the ringgit had appreciated quite substantially on account of the slowing inflation rate and softening in the labour market (in the United States),” he told Bernama.

Hence, he said talk of a possible shift in the US monetary stance in 2024 is gaining momentum and there are some investment banks betting on a sharp reduction in US interest rates next year.

"Perhaps the markets are quite (uncertain) about the pace of (US) interest rate (cuts) going forward. So there could be some profit-taking that set in today, resulting in the depreciation of the local note,” he added.

At the close, the ringgit was traded mostly lower versus a basket of major currencies.

It weakened against the euro to 5.0946/1022 from 5.0895/0955 yesterday, slipped vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.8550/8637 from 5.8271/8340 but rose versus the Japanese yen at 3.1338/1387 against 3.1467/1504.

The local note also traded mostly lower against other Asean currencies.

It was marginally higher vis-a-vis the Indonesian rupiah at 300.0/300.6 from 301.1/301.7 but slid against the Singapore dollar to 3.4838/4893 from 3.4775/4822.

It dropped versus the Thai baht to 13.2702/2957 from 13.1989/2201 yesterday and was also down against the Philippine peso at 8.42/8.44 from 8.40/8.41 previously. — Bernama