KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 24): Ringgit falls as Brent crude trades near the lowest in more than a year and outflows from Malaysian stocks gather pace.
* USD/MYR rises 0.2% to 4.1858
** Ringgit weakened 3% this year vs declines of almost 9% for INR and 6.8% for IDR
* Ringgit weathered external headwinds better than Asian peers in 2018, thanks to Malaysia’s current-account surplus, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken strategists Eugenia Victorino and Melody Jiang wrote in report
** Co. expects MYR to rise to 3.99 by end-2019, and sees BNM delivering a 25bp interest-rate hike in 2H as inflation quickens
* Overseas investors sold $34.3m of Malaysian equities on Dec. 20, a fifth day of withdrawals
* 10-year yield declined 1bp last week to 4.09%
* Foreign-exchange reserves fell 0.6% to $101.4b in the first two weeks of December: central bank data
* Singapore has widened a criminal probe into fund flows linked to Malaysia’s 1MDB to include Goldman Sachs, according to people with knowledge of the matter