KUALA LUMPUR: The outflow of foreign funds from Bursa Malaysia continued over the previous trading week with net sales of RM301.2mil, or nearly four times the amount of the preceding week.
According to MIDF Research, the strong outflow over the four-day trading week was owing to profit-taking after the FBM KLCI surged upon the appointment of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the nation's 10th Prime Minister.
"There was net selling every day of the week except on Thursday, when they net bought RM77.7mil.
"The heaviest net selling was on Friday at RM292.8mil as uncertainty loomed over the delay in the Cabinet line-up announcement, which was eventually revealed on the same night. Foreign investors also net sold RM10.7mil on Tuesday and RM75.4mil on Wednesday," said the research firm in its weekly fund flow report.
Sectors that saw the heaviest net outflow of foreign funds were financial services (RM153.5mil), healthcare (RM128.1mil) and industrial products and services (RM101.5mil).
Picking up the domestic equities was local institutions, which net bought RM431.2mil over the week.
Local retailers meanwhile reversed their buying trend to turn net sellers of RM130.1mil in local equities.
In terms of participation, there was an increase in average daily trading volume (ADTV) among foreign investors and local institutions by 61.6% and 7.6% respectively while retailers saw a decline of 10.5%.
Over the seven Asia exchanges tracked by MIDF, it said there was a net inflow of US$3.26bil in equities, extending the region's winning streak to six weeks.
The net inflows by foreign investors into Asian equities that we tracked were led by India, Taiwan, Korea and Thailand.
Meanwhile, net outflows were seen in Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines.