KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit extended Thursday's gains to
become firmer Friday morning as sentiment was positively influenced by the
possible US interest rate hike soon, dealers said.
At 9.15 am (0115gmt), the local unit was traded at
4.4450/4500 against the greenback from 4.4470/4510 on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve's meeting minutes
indicated that many policy makers wanted the benchmark rate to be raised
"fairly soon" if the economy continued to grow.
This helped spur interest for emerging currencies, including
the ringgit, a dealer said.
Nevertheless, the local unit was traded lower against a
basket of major currencies.
It fell against the Singapore dollar to 3.1549/1589 from
3.1452/1485 on Thursday and weakened versus the yen to 3.9375/9433 from
3.9278/9323.
The ringgit depreciated against the British pound to
5.5740/5812 from 5.5467/5535 yesterday and eased vis-a-vis the euro to
4.6997/7054 from 4.6894/6954 previously