Jan 3 (Reuters) - The currencies of BRICS nations have slumped in value with India's rupee and Brazil's real hitting record lows versus the dollar and China's yuan on the brink of one.

South Africa's rand has undergone a rapid change in fortune, dropping 11% in a few months, while Russia's rouble has slumped to its weakest point since the invasion of Ukraine.

Worryingly for Russia this drop isn't fuelled by the flight of foreign investors, most of whom are barred from trading rouble. Coming largely from within, its weakness may be harder to prevent and a break of nearby levels could swiftly send it to a record low.

The rand, which traded 18.91 on the final day of 2024 from 17.04 in October, is much closer to the all-time low at 19.91 traded in June 2023.

Big and abrupt drops for these higher profile emerging currencies will likely boost demand for the safety of the dollar which will put pressure on other less liquid emerging currencies that could also threaten record lows such as Chilean peso, Indonesia rupiah, Philippine peso, Malaysian ringgit and Hungarian forint.

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(Jeremy Boulton is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own)

((jeremy.boulton@thomsonreuters.com))