At 6pm, the local currency rose to 4.4965/4.4990 against the greenback from yesterday’s close of 4.5010/4.5040.

A dealer said Malaysia’s manufacturing sales value and IPI data released by the department of statistics Malaysia (DoSM) today boosted optimism in the market.

According to the DoSM, Malaysia’s manufacturing sales value in July 2022 grew by 23.8% to RM148.4 billion, driven by, among others, the electrical and electronics products sub-sector, petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastics products sub-sector.

It said the IPI increased 12.5% in July 2022 compared with a year earlier. The stronger performance was driven by manufacturing, electricity and mining sectors, which recorded growth of 14.9%, 13.2% and 3.2% respectively.

ActivTrades trader Dyogenes Rodrigues Diniz said the US dollar failed to break above yesterday’s high despite US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell reiterating his commitment to maintaining price stability and containing inflation.

“When unemployment is under control and inflation is high (as is currently the case), the natural course of action is to raise interest rates to contain the rise in prices. Therefore, the US macroeconomic scenario still points to higher interest rates,” Diniz said in a note today.

The ringgit was traded lower against a basket of major currencies.

The local unit declined against the Singapore dollar to 3.2189/3.2209 from yesterday’s close of 3.2015/3.2041, weakened against the British pound at 5.2249/5.2278 from 5.1730/5.1764, eased against the euro to 4.5361/4.5386 from 4.4996/4.5026 and depreciated against the Japanese yen to 3.1670/3.1690 from 3.1285/3.1308 yesterday.