THE ringgit opened slightly higher against the US dollar this morning due to mild demand for the domestic note.

At 9am, the local note rose to 4.6855/6905 against the greenback from yesterday’s close of 4.6890/6940.

Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist and social finance head Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the local note has been in an oversold position from the technical standpoint, hence opening more trading opportunities.

“However, it remains to be seen whether such a trend can be sustained in light of the hawkishness of the US Federal Reserve,” he told Bernama.

On another note, he said Malaysia’s Consumer Price Index data are expected to be released today, with the consensus projecting that the inflation rate could be sustained at 2.0% last month after cooling to 2.0% in July.

“If it materialises, it would bolster the case for the status quo in overnight policy rate at the final Monetary Policy Committee meeting of the year in November,” he added.

The ringgit traded mostly higher against a basket of major currencies.

It advanced against the euro at 4.9924/9977 from 4.9947/5.000 at yesterday’s close and was better versus the British pound at 5.7543/7604 from 5.7632/7694 yesterday. It slid against the Japanese yen to 3.1736/1772 from 3.1650/1686 previously.

At the same time, the local note traded mostly higher against other Asean currencies.

It strengthened against the Thai baht to 12.9473/9686 from 12.9695/9880 yesterday and appreciated against the Indonesian rupiah to 304.6/305.2 from 304.9/305.4 previously.

It gained against the Philippine peso at 8.24/8.26 from 8.25/8.26 yesterday and was flat vis-à-vis the Singapore dollar at 3.4271/4310. – Bernama, September 22, 2023.