KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 — The ringgit strengthened against the US dollar in the early session on renewed buying interest, said a dealer.

At 9am, the local note was quoted at 3.9050/9100 to yesterday’s close of 3.9240/9270.

OANDA Head of Trading Asia-Pacific, Stephen Innes said the dovish US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) outcome should be a green light to sell US dollar despite the potential for a steeper interest rate path in 2019-2020.

At its March 20-21 monetary meeting, the US central bank had raised the rate by 0.25 per cent to a target range of 1.5 per cent to 1.75 per cent.

Innes noted that at this stage, that was a conjecture in the face of possible US dollar negatives such as trade war escalation, burgeoning US budget deficit, and the political storm clouds that continued to engulf the President Donald Trump administration.

As for the ringgit, he said the dulcet US Federal Open Market Committee overtones and Brent crude oil tracking towards US$70 a barrel should provide a boost to the local unit sentiment despite tepid consumer price index print yesterday, lessening the chances for a 2018 follow-up rate hike by Bank Negara Malaysia.

"The ringgit should be back in the game after a fortnight off the grid,” he said in a note today.

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

The local unit rose against the Singapore dollar to 2.9748/9790 from 2.9752/9788 but declined against the Japanese yen to 3.6948/7012 from 3.6907/6946.

Against the British pound, it depreciated to 5.5310/5385 from 5.5152/5210 and fell against the euro to 4.8285/8351 from 4.8171/8224. — Bernama