KUALA LUMPUR: The weekly outflow of funds on Bursa Malaysia trickled to its lowest so far in 2018 as overseas investors consolidated their positions ahead of the National Day holiday.
According to MIDF Research, preliminary data from the stock exchange showed an outflow of RM15.3mil net of local equities last week.
The research house said buying of Malaysian equity last Monday and Tuesday was bolstered to RM23.2mil and RM34.8mil respectively as comments from the US Federal Reserve on interest rates and the preliminary deal betweeen the US and Mexico on Nafta improved sentiment.
However, there was midweek selling to the tune of of RM121.6mil as investors reaped profits following muted trading on Wall Street overnight.
"Foreign funds nevertheless snapped up RM48.3m net in conformity with Asian peers namely South Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia, tracking the rally in technology shares in U.S markets," said MIDF.
For the month of August, total foreign net outflow shrank to RM97.4mil from RM1.6bil in July, whih marks a fourth straight month of decline in foreign selling since May.
"The year-to-date outflow from Malaysia still stands at -RM8.60b as of last Friday,the second lowest outfl ow amongst the 4 ASEAN markets we monitor," said MIDF.
Despite the four-day trading week, weekly average daily traded value among foreign investors was 7.7% higher at RM1.24bil, above the RM1bil mark for the seventh straight week.
"The scene in the retail market and local institutional funds was equally positive as their ADTVs rose by 2.6% and 11.2% respectively," said the research house.
The three stocks that saw the highest net money inflow were Public Bank, Genting Plantation and IHH Healthcare.
Public Bank rose 0.88% during the week while the other two counters retreated.
"Nonetheless, it is notable that net money inflow amidst retreating share price may indicate a buy on weakness (BOW) stance among some investors," said MIDF with regards to latter's lower share price.
Petronas Chemicals, MY EG Services and Axiata GRoup topped the list of counters with net money outflows.
Petronas Chemicals saw its share price rise 2.44% despite a money outflow of RM31.92mil over the last week.
Simlarly, My EG rose 10.37% while net money outflow was RM5.76mil. Axiata rose with a recorded net money outflow of RM5.06mil.
"It is notable that the net money outfl ow amidst advancing share price may indicate a sell on strength (SOS) stance among some investors," said MIDF.
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