KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit closed higher against the greenback yesterday after the Federal Reserve said it would not actively consider 75-basis-point moves in the future.

       It had earlier hiked the interest rate by half a percentage point and signalled that it would do so at the same rate in the next two meetings.

       At 6pm, the local unit rose to 4.3465/3515 against the greenback compared with last Friday’s close of 4.3520/3570.

       OANDA senior market analyst Asia-Pacific Jeffrey Halley said with the possibility of a 0.75 percentage point hike off the table, for now, markets have an excuse to reduce extended US dollar long positions.

       “The US dollar slumped against developing markets and Asian currencies and from a technical perspective, the dollar index should hold around those (levels) and resume its uptrend,” he added. — Bernama