Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Afzanizam Rashid said the ringgit continued to perform favourably against major currencies on the back of a favourable macroeconomic backdrop.

He noted that better-than-expected jobless claims in the US yesterday helped the market recover from earlier jitters.

On the home front, the statistics department announced that Malaysia’s Industrial Production Index (IPI) rose by 5% year-on-year in June 2024 driven by consistent growth in the manufacturing sector.

“Higher than expected IPI suggested that the Malaysian economy is benefitting from improved global demand, especially in technology-related sectors, along with sustained domestic demand,” Afzanizam said.

At 6pm, the ringgit climbed to 4.4200/4.4280 against the greenback from yesterday’s close of 4.4710/4.4750.

At the close, the ringgit traded higher against a basket of major currencies.

It gained vis-a-vis the euro to 4.8253/4.8340 from 4.8859/4.8903 at yesterday’s close, improved against the Japanese yen to 3.0019/3.0075 from 3.0590/3.0619 yesterday and appreciated versus the British pound to 5.6373/5.6475 from 5.6661/5.6712 previously.

Similarly, the unit also traded higher against Asean currencies.

It improved versus the Singapore dollar to 3.3381/3.3444 from 3.3746/3.3779 yesterday and inched up against the Indonesian rupiah to 277.5/278.2 from 281.2/281.6.

The local note strengthened vis-a-vis the Thai baht to 12.5234/12.5514 from 12.6382/12.6545 at yesterday’s close and went up against the Philippine peso at 7.71/7.73 from 7.79/7.82 previously.