The ringgit opened higher against the US dollar in early trade on Monday despite cautious sentiment following US President-elect Donald Trump's threat to impose 100% tariffs on BRICS countries.
At 9.50am, the ringgit was at 4.4400, unchanged since opening against the USD from its close of 4.4425 at the end of last Friday.
Stephen Innes, SPI Asset Management said he expected emerging market currencies that have a trade surplus with the US such as Malaysia to show some decline.
He added that the market viewed Trump's previous tariff threats as a negotiating tactic to obtain more concessions from trading partners and that the same situation may be the case with the tariff threat against BRICS.
Therefore, the market remains with a wait-and-see approach to assess whether this statement will turn into a trade war or just part of Trump's bargaining strategy.
The ringgit was traded higher against a group of major currencies.
It rose against the pound to 5.6366/6493 from 5.6384/6473 last Friday, rose against the euro to 4.6780/6885 from 4.6899/6973 and gained against the Japanese yen to 2.9578/9647 from 2.9589/9638
The local currency also traded mostly higher against its Asean counterparts.
It rose against the Singapore dollar to 3.3078/3157 from 3.3146/3200 last Friday and rose against the Philippine peso to 7.57/7.60 from 7.58/7.59.
The ringgit also strengthened against the Thai baht to 12.9126/9507 from 12.9459/9738 and was little changed against the Indonesian rupiah to 280.1/280.9 from 280.2/280.8 previously.
