Foreign funds step up selling on Bursa Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign funds upped the ante in disposing of stocks listed on Bursa Malaysia, selling RM534.78mil of local equities last week against RM288.13mil in the preceding week, according to MIDF Research.

“As the market reopened on Monday last week, foreign investors sold RM199.66mil net of local equities, with retailers and local institutions as net buyers to the tune of RM72.69mil and RM126.97mil respectively.

“Foreign investors were net sellers every day except Friday during last week,” MIDF said in its weekly fund flow report.

The research house said the largest foreign outflow was recorded on Tuesday at RM298.69mil and the smallest outflow was on Thursday at only RM81.30mil.

On the other hand, retailers were net buyers everyday last week. The largest net buying was recorded on Tuesday at RM286.74mil while the smallest net purchase was on Monday.

MIDF said local institutions were net sellers for the week, albeit smaller than net outflow of foreign investors.

It said buyings were recorded on Monday and Tuesday with cumulative net inflow of RM138.92mil.

Net selling activities were bigger, resulting in cumulative net selling to the tune of RM195.20mil. The biggest net outflow was on Friday with net selling of RM154.75mil,” MIDF said.

“Since the beginning of 2021, cumulatively, retailers are the only net buyers of our equity market to the tune of RM1.75bil.

“Local institutions and foreign investors are net sellers to the tune of RM919.25mil and RM833.87mil respectively,” MIDF said.

The research house said the other three South East Asian markets that it tracked recorded net outflow last week.

In terms of participation, MIDF noted that the retail investors recorded a weekly decrease of 6.28% in average daily trade value (ADTV).

The foreign investors and local institutions experienced declines in ADTV of 72.79% and 10.90% respectively.