Ringgit Firmer Versus Greenback in Early Trade

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24 (Bernama) -- The ringgit extended Thursday's gains to open firmer Friday morning as sentiment was positively influenced by the possible US interest rate hike soon, dealers said. At 9.15 am, the local unit was traded at 4.4450/4500 against the greenback from 4.4470/4510 on Thursday. On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve's meeting minutes indicated that many policy makers wanted the benchmark rate to be raised "fairly soon" if the economy continued to grow. This helped spur interest for emerging currencies, including the ringgit, a dealer said. Nevertheless, the local unit was traded lower against a basket of major currencies. It fell against the Singapore dollar to 3.1549/1589 from 3.1452/1485 on Thursday and weakened versus the yen to 3.9375/9433 from 3.9278/9323. The ringgit depreciated against the British pound to 5.5740/5812 from 5.5467/5535 Thursday and eased vis-a-vis the euro to 4.6997/7054 from 4.6894/6954 previously. -- BERNAMA