KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit opened lower against the US dollar on firmer buying support for the greenback, backed by better US employment data.

       At 9 am, the local currency was traded at 4.1970/2005 against the greenback from 4.1930/1955 at Wednesday’s close.

       According to the US ADP Non-Farm Employment Change data, 807,000 jobs were created in the US private sector against the forecast of 400,000.

       ActivTrades trader Dyogenes Rodrigues Diniz said this has the potential to further accelerate economic recovery in the US and accelerate the pace of withdrawal of the current financial stimulus.

       He said this showed that the monetary policies adopted by the US Federal Reserve have had a positive effect.

       "From a macroeconomic perspective, the US Non-Farm Payroll data, to be released on Friday, could confirm the high level of new jobs created and could give the US dollar even more strength against its counterparts.

       "From a technical point of view, if the ringgit-US dollar manages to break above 4.1950, the local unit could drop to 4.2450 in just a few days,” he told Bernama.

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

       It marginally rose versus the Singapore dollar to 3.0919/0950 from Wednesday’s close of 3.0924/0939 and slightly increased against the Japanese yen to 3.6146/6180 from 3.6190/6215.

       The local currency eased vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.6857/6908 from 5.6785/6814 yesterday and weakened against the euro to 4.7454/7511 from 4.7408/7424. - Bernama