Foreigners continue sell-off on Bursa Malaysia; YTD outflow at RM852.2mil

KUALA LUMPUR: Continuing their selling spree, foreign investors have pulled out a total of RM892.4mil last week, almost one third of the amount dumped in the preceeding week.

MIDF Research said foreign outflows from stocks listed on Bursa continued for the fourth consecutive week albeit at a slower pace.

“Foreign investors were net sellers on every single day of the week, stretching the selling spree to 15 straight days as of last Friday. This is the longest selling streak recorded since the 17 day binge in August 2017,” the research house said in its weekly fund flow report.

Monday saw international investors taking RM125.4mil net off the table.

Global investors then sold off RM77.2m net the next day as investors digested poor quarterly results of KLCI-linked companies such as Telekom Malaysia.

MIDF noted that the momentum of foreign selling ramped up to RM286.8mil net on Wednesday, coinciding with FBM KLCI’s 2.21% daily drop, the largest since Aug 24, 2015.

“The selloff was mainly sparked by looming concerns on the nation’s debt level,” it said.

Other factors included the geopolitical tensions between Washington and Pyongyang which also led to a heavy selloff in Asian peers namely Thailand, Taiwan and the Philippines.

Thursday then saw a higher level of foreign selling at RM322.8mil net which dragged the FBM KLCI to the lowest close since late December 2017 of 1,776 points.

Nonetheless, foreign selling shrank to as low as RM80mil net on Friday with the FBM KLCI snapping four straight sessions of losses as it settled above 1,800 points.

Last week’s foreign withdrawal has wiped out the cumulative inflows which stood at RM40.2mil in the week before.

“The year-to-date outflow from Malaysia is RM852.2mil net, which is still

the lowest among the Asean peers that we track,” MIDF said.

Foreign participation dipped as the foreign average daily trade value(ADTV) declined by 35% but is still considered healthy at RM1.56bil.