The Malaysian ringgit strengthened today as the improving US hosing market and the advance of global equities increased attractiveness of higher-yielding currencies.

The report yesterday showed that the US housing starts increased to 629,000 in June, compared to the expected value of 580,000. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index surged 1.6 percent yesterday, while the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index of shares posted the biggest gain in a week. Malaysia’s annual inflation reached the highest level in two years of 3.5 percent in June.

USD/MYR fell from 3.0087 to 3.0000 as of 11:26 GMT today.

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