At 9am, the local unit stood at 4.1380/1430 versus the greenback from 4.1380/1420 at Friday’s close.

Axi chief global market strategist Stephen Innes said the positive trend for the local note against the major currencies (except for the US dollar) was also due to the recovery in the bond market, which recovered sharply last week on the FTSE news.

“Malaysia will remain in the FTSE World Government Bond Index (WBGI), removing a vital overhang of the past two years. Stretched absolute yields and low liquidity had likely contributed to the rally.

“Still, I suspect foreign investors will be slow to re-engage for a long duration as the market begins pricing in central bank policy normalisation. And in the Bank Negara Malaysia’s case, the easing cycle is over,” he told Bernama.

Separately, the ringgit has also received support from the improved local manufacturing data. The IHS Markit Malaysia Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 49.9 in March from February’s 47.7.

According to IHS Markit, March’s PMI reading of 49.9 was the highest since July 2020.

The local note rose against the Singapore dollar to 3.0754/0794 from 3.0780/0816.

Vis-a-vis the British pound, the ringgit advanced to 5.7216/7298 from 5.7241/7309. Against the euro, the ringgit was higher at 4.8675/8751 from 4.8733/8797.