Foreign funds net sellers at RM1.47b in week ended Aug 14

KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign funds stepped their selling pressure on Malaysian equities in the week ended Aug 14 where the ringgit hit past 1998 lows with net selling surging to RM1.47bil.

BIMB Securities Research said on Monday that net foreign selling was at –RM403.8mil on Friday.

Local retailers were seen picking up battered down stocks with net buying rising to RM98.1mil in the week and RM24.8mil on Friday.

According to BIMB Research, local institutions were net buyers at in the week at RM1.318bil and RM379mil on Friday.

Last Friday, the KLCI closed 24.80 points or 1.53% lower to 1,596.82 with heavy selling by foreign institutions, mainly on oil and gas and banking stocks. 

“We expect the local market to trend sideways with slight downside bias due to continuous selling by foreign investors with the index hovering circa 1,590,” it said.

European equities ended lower as eurozone’s economic growth came in below expectation. .

Wall Street closed higher following series of upbeat economic reports on the U.S. economy. The DJIA and S&P500 gained 0.40% and 0.39% respectively to end at 17,477.40 and 2,091.54 respectively.