The ringgit opened marginally lower against the US dollar today as stronger oil prices helped cushion any further downtrend, dealers said.

At 9.01am, the local unit was traded at 4.4150/4250 against the greenback from 4.4140/4190 on last Friday.

Global oil prices have climbed on hopes that the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries might agree to production cuts.

Over the weekend, Bank Negara Malaysia warned it would no longer tolerate ringgit transactions in the Non-Deliverable Forward (NDF) market and its damaging influence over the onshore pricing of the local currency.

Governor Muhammad Ibrahim said the central bank would take “prompt supervisory intervention” against any individual or bank in the country that is involved in the offshore ringgit trading.

He cited markets should not price the ringgit excessively or out of sync with the underlying fundamentals.

Against other major currencies, the local unit traded slightly better.

It rose against the Singapore dollar to 3.0956/1031 from 3.0962/0008 on Friday, strengthened against the yen to 3.9818/9912 from 3.9874/9948 and appreciated versus the British pound to 5.4512/4671 from 5.4734/4813.

However, the ringgit slipped vis-a-vis the euro to 4.6803/6914 from 4.6780/6837 previously.

- Bernama