Foreign funds remain net sellers, outflow at RM774.1mil

KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign funds continued to withdraw from Bursa Malaysia with the amount of outflow nine times more to RM774.1mil last week, according to MIDF Research.

“Based on data from Bursa, international investors sold RM774.1mil net of local equities last week, almost nine times more than what was sold in the preceding week,” the research house said in its weekly fund flow report.

“Foreign investors have so far taken out RM11.08bil net of local equities from Malaysia.

“In comparison to its other six Asian peers that we monitor, Malaysia remains as the nation with the third smallest foreign net outflow on a year-to-date basis after Indonesia and the Philippines,” it said.

Monday saw the highest net outflow as international funds offloaded RM319.9mil net of local equities, the largest in a day since mid-March this year.

Market sentiment was hurt by rising tensions between Washington and Beijing after U.S. President Donald Trump hinted over the weekend that he could impose new tariffs on Chinese goods because of the claim that China lacked transparency on the coronavirus.

Foreign net selling activity dipped on Tuesday to RM96.5mil, coinciding with Bank Negara Malaysia’s 50 basis points cut in its key interest rate to a 10-year low of 2.0%.

The momentum of foreign net outflow accelerated on Wednesday to RM247.9mil as investors booked profits ahead of Thursday’s public holiday.

Foreign funds continued to sell local equities on Friday but at a slower pace of RM109.8mil net.

In terms of participation, foreign investors were the only investor group which recorded a weekly decline in its average daily traded value (ADTV).

The ADTV of foreign investors decreased by 10.3% for the week to reach below RM1bil at RM903mil, the lowest in 16 weeks.