KUALA LUMPUR, April 9 — The ringgit opened flat today on lack of fresh leads amid concerns over Norway’s sovereign wealth fund plans to trim their position in emerging markets including Malaysia.

At 9.20am, the local unit was traded at 4.0950/0980 against the greenback from yesterday’s close of 4.0950/0000.

A dealer said Norway's trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, is planning to streamline its US$300 billion (RM1.23 trillion) fixed-income portfolios by cutting emerging market bonds from the benchmark index it tracks.

He added that the fund’s estimated exposure in Malaysia’s bond market is about US$1.9 billion.

Meanwhile, the ringgit traded lower against a basket of major currencies.

It eased against the Singapore dollar to 3.0235/0268 from 3.0197/0245 and weakened against the Japanese yen to 3.6773/6809 from 3.6750/6804.

The ringgit was lower against the British pound to 5.3530/3573 from 5.3485/3562 and depreciated against the euro to 4.6126/6176 from 4.6024/6084. — Bernama