KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit opened marginally firmer against the US dollar amidst the uncertainty dominating the markets ahead of the release of the United States (US) Non-Farm Payroll data later today, said an analyst.

       At 9 am, the local note rose to 4.1800/1830 versus the greenback from Thursday's closing of 4.1820/1835.

       ActivTrades trader Dyogenes Rodrigues Diniz said the US Initial Jobless Claims data showed that applications for unemployment insurance had declined last week.

       "This tends to be positive for the US dollar, as the market may interpret this as the US Federal Reserve achieving its goal of creating more jobs in the US.

       "From a technical point of view, if the US dollar-ringgit breaks above 4.1930, it could rise to 4.2400 in a few days,” he told Bernama.

       At the opening, the ringgit was traded mostly higher against a basket of major currencies.

       It rose versus the Japanese yen to 3.7405/7435 from 3.7517/7534 at Thursday’s close and gained against the Singapore dollar to 3.0776/0803 compared with 3.0784/0797 yesterday.

       The local note also improved vis-a-vis the euro to 4.8308/8343 from 4.8344/8361 previously, but depreciated versus the British pound to 5.6927/6968 from 5.6833/6854 yesterday. - Bernama