KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 17 — The ringgit opened higher against the US dollar on renewed interest from investors after the US retail sales showed a negative data figure, a dealer said.

At 9am, the local note was at 4.1880/1920 versus the greenback from 4.1935/1965 recorded at Wednesday’s closing.

The US Commerce Department yesterday released its retail and food services which declined by 0.3 per cent to US$525.6 billion compared with the previous month, its the first retreat in seven months.

This came after the greenback received a boost over the latest US-China trade truce.

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However, against a basket of other currencies, the local note was traded mostly lower except with the yen, which rose to 3.8525/8572 from 3.8575/8613. 

It depreciated against the Singapore dollar to 3.0576/0607 from 3.0560/0585, weakened against the British pound to 5.3728/3783 from 5.3513/3568 and slipped to 4.6411/6460 from 4.6288/6338 when compared with the euro. — Bernama