At 6pm, the local note traded at 4.1830/1880 against the US dollar from Thursday’s 4.1780/1820.

The ringgit was seen tracking the movement of China’s renmimbi for quite some time as the latter was one of Malaysia’s major investors.

“I must admit I’m a bit surprised the ringgit did not trade with a more positive bias as US-China trade tensions have improved while the local unit should find support from a probable US Federal Interest rate pause in 2019.

“The market is indeed caught in the year-end malaise with local investors now fretting over oil markets and the outlook for global growth in 2019,” he told Bernama.

Against major currencies, the ringgit rose to 5.2635/2710 from 5.2902/2957 against the pound yesterday and improved to 4.7239/7299 versus the euro from 4.7533/7587 yesterday.

It strengthened slightly against the Singapore dollar to 3.0393/0434 from 3.0479/0519 on Thursday but slipped against the yen to 3.6842/6895 from 3.6817/6859 yesterday.