KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 20): The ringgit extended Thursday’s gains to open higher on Friday against the greenback on renewed buying interest.

At 9am, the ringgit appreciated to 4.2975/3015 against the greenback from Thursday’s close of 4.3050/3100.

ActivTrades trader Dyogenes Rodrigues Diniz said the US dollar dropped against the ringgit, partly due to solid economic numbers recorded in Malaysia in the last few months: the Southeast Asian country is in fact posting stronger data than major developed economies such as the US and the European Union.

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) decided to keep the interest rate unchanged at 2.75%, reassured by low inflation and steady employment data.

However, he said, the market was expecting BNM to raise the overnight policy rate by 25 basis points to 3% and this discrepancy could lead to a devaluation of the Malaysian currency over the next few days as government bonds will pay a lower interest to investors.

“From a technical point of view and considering the current monetary policy scenario, the ringgit could go down to 4.3600-4.4400 against the greenback within a few days,” he told Bernama.

Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded mixed against a basket of major currencies.

The local note depreciated against the Singapore dollar at 3.2510/2543 from 3.2483/2523 and slipped to 5.3220/3270 against the British pound from 5.3111/3172 at Thursday’s close.

The local unit, however, strengthened versus the euro to 4.6551/6594 from 4.6602/6656 and rose vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.3407/3441 from 3.3544/3588 at Thursday’s close.