KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit opened easier against the US dollar and other major currencies.

As at 9.00 am, the local unit was quoted at 3.9850/9880 against the greenback from Tuesday's close of 3.9480/9530.

Today was the first day of trading for the ringgit following the 14th General Election last Wednesday, which saw Pakatan Harapan (PH) forming the new government, a dealer said.

The market was closed on Wednesday for polling day, followed by two day public holidays after the PH victory.

“Attention will be focused on the Malaysian onshore markets this morning after Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's coalition triggered the circuit breakers and imposed a cooling off period for cash markets by declaring the two-day public holiday,” OANDA Head of Trading Asia-Pacific, Stephen Innes said in a note today.

He also said the Malaysian ringgit could see traders on a cash market knee-jerk reaction looking to position long term views based on the country's solid domestic economic performance, high external factors and of course,  higher oil prices.

Meanwhile, Dr Mahathir has assured that he will try to make the ringgit as steady as possible.

The ringgit fell against the Singapore dollar to 2.9893/9929  from 2.9498/9540 and declined versus the yen at 3.6466/6503 from 3.6250/6299.

The local currency depreciated vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.4053/4113 from 5.3353/3437  and weakened against the euro to 4.7673/7716 from 4.6898/6962. - Bernama