Bursa Malaysia sees net foreign outflow of RM57.8mil in holiday-shortened week

KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign investors net sold Malaysian equities on every trading day of the past week for a total net outflow of RM57.8mil.

The domestic bourse once again bucked the regional trend, which recorded net inflows from offshore funds on the back of positive sentiment over the reopening of the Chinese economy.

According to MIDF research, investors classified as "foreign" net bought US$2.31bil worth of equities in the eight Asian exchanges tracked by the research firm.

"Excluding Taiwan, whose bourse closed throughout the week for the Chinese New Year holidays, India and Malaysia were the only countries that recorded net foreign outflows, while the other five countries that we track posted net foreign inflows," it said in its weekly fund flow report.

MIDF said the Malaysian market, which was closed on Monday and Tuesday for the Lunar New Year holiday, saw foreign net selling from Wednesday to Friday.

"The largest net outflows were seen on Friday, at US$7.23mil (RM30.66mil) and Wednesday at US$6.22mil on the back of profit taking activities. Thursday was rather muted with a slight net outflows recorded at US$160,000," it said.

The research firm reported that the sectors with the heaviest selling was seen in financial services (RM140.5mil), telecommunications and media (RM14.3mil) and construction (RM14.1mil).

Sectors leading the net inflows meanwhile were seen in consumer products and services (RM54.6mil), energy (RM26.3mil) and healthcare (RM21.8mil).

MIDF reported that local retailers net sold RM21mil of local equities over the week while local institutions remained net buyers for the third straight week with net purchases of RM78.9mil of equities.

The research firm said in terms of participation, there was an increase in average daily trading volume (ADTV) among local retailers (19.2%) and foreign investors (4.6%).

The local institutions meanwhile recorded a 0.9%decline in weekly ADTV.