At 9.02am, the local currency increased to 4.3805/3840 versus the US dollar from Wednesday’s close of 4.3880/3910.

SPI Asset Management managing partner Stephen Innes said investors are also focusing on the release of the US Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) data today, providing the ringgit with a favourable trading backdrop.

“In addition, risk sentiment appears to be improving, aided by higher oil prices. However, the ringgit may move range-bound ahead of the NFP release,” Innes added.

The benchmark Brent crude oil price was up 0.07% to US$117.70 per barrel at the time of writing.

On the local front, finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz on Thursday said the expansion of the Malaysian economy by 3.6% in the fourth quarter of 2021 and 5.0% in the first quarter of 2022, will continue to help strengthen the ringgit.

He added that this was reflected in the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) research, which forecast Malaysia’s GDP growth of 5.75% for 2022, driven by pent-up domestic demand and continued strong external demand.

The ministry of finance is confident of the country’s strong economic growth projection of between 5.3% and 6.3% in 2022, which would contribute to the ringgit’s stability.

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

The local note depreciated against the Singapore dollar to 3.1960/1991 from Thursday’s close of 3.1901/1928 but increased vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.3745/3775 from 3.3803/3829.

The ringgit traded lower versus the British pound at 5.5085/5129 compared with 5.5034/5072 on Wednesday and dropped versus the euro to 4.7125/7163 from 4.6895/6927 previously.