Foreign funds step up buying on Bursa Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: The pace of foreign buying on Bursa Malaysia accelerated with US$280.98mil (RM1.18bil) net of equities purchased over the past trading week, according to MIDF Research.

According to the research house, this was a significant improvement over US$155.06mil (RM651.33mil) net bought over the week prior.

Public Bank registered the highest net money inflow of RM15mil last week.

Press Metal saw the second highest net money inflow of RM6.74mil while Maybank saw the third highest net money inflow of RM6.55mil.

On the other hand, United Plantations saw the largest net money outflow of RM2.73m last week.

Genting recorded the second largest net money outflow of RM2.65mil and Nestle registered the third largest net money outflow of RM2.65mil during the week under review.

MIDF said Asian markets saw investors recording a net outflow for the fourth consecutive week.

Based on the provisional aggregate data for the seven Asian exchanges that the research house tracks, investors classified as “foreign” sold US$1,223.8mil net last week.

Out of the eleven trading weeks so far in 2022, there has been seven weeks of net selling and four weeks of net buying.

“Overall, of the markets that we tracked; the net outflow from Taiwan, Korea and Philippine; to the tune of US$1.5bil, US$724.31mil and US$38.21mil, respectively.

“Meanwhile, three countries recorded net inflow amounting to US$1.1bil. Of this, Indonesia saw the biggest inflow with US$501.70mil, the second biggest net inflow was from Thailand with US$334.64mil, then followed by Malaysia with US$280.98mil,” MIDF said.

The research house said Malaysia and Indonesia were the only markets that saw net inflow in all of the trading days last week.

“We opined the net selling was influenced by a multitude of factors such as Russian-Ukraine disputes, tightening monetary policy stance, inflation concerns and Shenzhen lockdown.

“With clear market and guidance from the US Federal Reserve over the interest rate hike, we think there could be possible rotational flows into Asia given market has become more certain and convincing for more economic recovery,” MIDF said.