The ringgit opened higher against the US dollar as investors looked at the details of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) Meeting Minutes that were released early this morning.
The fall of the ringgit continues to attract the attention of netizens after the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Najib Razak 'trolled' a short post on Facebook in 2017 by Rafizi Ramli where he criticized the ringgit's level which reached RM3.80.
At exactly 9am, the ringgit rose to 4.7900/4.7950 against the US dollar compared to 4.7920/4.7965 at yesterday's close.
Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd Chief Economist, Dr Afzanizam Rashid said the US Dollar Index (DXY) fell by 0.08% to 103.99 after the announcement of the minutes of the FOMC meeting.
He also said that the Federal Reserve (Fed) remains confident in its assessment of the economy given that the US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data growth remains robust alongside the decline in the inflation rate.
For now, FOMC members agree that interest rates must remain higher before they are confident that inflation will move toward the 2% goal.
Meanwhile, the ringgit traded mostly lower against a group of major currencies.
The local currency was higher against the Japanese yen at 3.1848/3.1884 from 3.1925/3.1957 at Wednesday's close, but eased against the British pound to 6.0570/6.0633 from 6.0432/6.0489, and fell against the euro to 5.187/5.187/5. 5.1754/5.1802 before.
At the same time, the ringgit traded mixed compared to other Asean currencies.
It rose against the Thai baht to 13.3389/13.3584 from 13.3631/13.3816 at Wednesday's close and rose against the Indonesian rupiah to 306.3/306.8 from 306.4/306.9.
The local currency eased against the Singapore dollar to 3.5661/3.5701 from 3.5652/3.5688 on Wednesday and was unchanged against the Philippine peso at 8.56/8.58.
