KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit and Bursa Malaysia began the day on a positive note, helped by an unfavourable employment situation in the US and a strong overnight performance on Wall Street.
The ringgit opened at 4.6030/4.6100 to the US dollar, up from yesterday’s close of 4.6185/4.6235.
The rebound was helped partly by an increase in US initial jobless claims to 261,000 last week, higher than the consensus estimate of 235,000. This led to a decline in the value of the US dollar, Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist and social finance head Afzanizam Rashid told Bernama.
Bursa was up 3.09 points to 1,377.73 points just 10 minutes in the trading day, from 1,374.64 at yesterday’s close. It had begun trading at 1,375.58 points.