The Malaysian ringgit (RM) opened higher against the US dollar on Monday amid renewed buying interest in the currency since last week's close.
At exactly 10.30 this morning, the ringgit rose to 4.7040 against the US dollar from where it closed at 4.7100 on Friday last week.
Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd's Chief Economist, Dr Afzanizam said the current sentiment is expected to remain ahead of the next report for United States (US) inflation figures this Friday.
He also said that the strict monetary policy of the Federal Reserve (Fed) continues to support the US dollar since the forecast of monetary easing is most likely not feasible in the near term.
Fed officials are expected to continue emphasizing the view that the benchmark interest rate needs to remain high to curb inflation to reach the 2.0% target as planned since last year.
Meanwhile, the ringgit eased against the Japanese yen to 3.0030/0067 from 2.9996/3.0017 on Friday, fell against the euro to 5.1076/1136 from 5.1000/1032 and eased against the British pound to 5.9969/6.0039 from 5.9859/9898 previously.
Compared to the currencies of other ASEAN countries, the local unit is traded mostly low.
The ringgit eased against the Thai baht to 12.8424/8626 from 12.8373/8507 and fell against the Philippine peso to 8.10/8.11 from 8.09/8.10.
The local unit also fell against the Singapore dollar to 3.4883/4927 from last week's closing level of 3.4876/4901 and was unchanged against the Indonesian rupiah to 294.3/294.7 from 294.5/294.7 previously.
