KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 31 — The ringgit opened marginally higher against the US dollar today on renewed buying interest.

At 9.02am, the local note rose slightly to 4.1855/1905 versus the greenback from 4.1880/1915 at Friday’s close.

A dealer said higher oil prices lent support to the ringgit’s performance in the early session.

At the time of writing, Brent crude jumped 1.02 per cent to US$90.95 and West Texas Intermediate jumped 1.21 per cent to US$88.03.

The oil market strengthened in early trade amid signs of sustained global demand and geopolitical events in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded higher against a basket of other major currencies.

It eased against the Singapore dollar to 3.0867/0906 from Friday’s close of 3.0860/0890 and declined versus the euro at 4.6647/6703 compared with 4.6621/6660.

The domestic unit depreciated against the British pound to 5.6107/6174 from 5.6031/6078 and rose vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.6241/6288 from 3.6222/6252. — Bernama