By Niam Seet Wei and Kisho Kumari Sucedaram
KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 (NNN-Bernama) — The ringgit rebounded against the US dollar to 4.13 at the opening Friday, fuelled by firmer crude oil prices amid the ease of the safe-haven greenback and US bond yields.
The improved local manufacturing data, of which the headline IHS Markit Malaysia Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 49.9 in March from 47.7 in February this year, also lent support to the local currency.
At 9am, the local unit climbed to 4.1385/1435 against the greenback from 4.1440/1470 at Thursday’s close.
Axi chief global market strategist Stephen Innes said with risk sentiment on full tap, the US dollar gave way to gushy global risk sentiment.
“The softer US yields and the recovery bounced on oil prices overnight should help soften the local note’s hard landing this week,” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, Ambank Research, in a note, said March’s manufacturing PMI signalled a marked improvement in operating conditions across the manufacturing sector, which further boosted the ringgit movement.
According to IHS Markit, March’s PMI reading of 49.9 was the highest since July 2020.
“On the ringgit outlook for today, we expect it to trade between our support levels of between 4.1208 and 4.1311, while our resistance is pinned at between 4.1591 and 4.1701,” it said.
As at the time of writing, the benchmark Brent crude oil advanced 3.38 per cent to US$64.86 per barrel.
At the opening bell, the ringgit, however, was traded lower against other major currencies.
The local note depreciated against the British pound to 5.7277/7350 from 5.7063/7112 at Thursday’s close, shrank against the euro to 4.8706/8781 from 4.8646/8690 and fell vis-a-vis the yen to 3.7405/7454 from 3.7387/7418.
It also eased against the Singapore dollar to 3.0776/0816 from 3.0774/0803.
— NNN-BERNAMA