KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign investors continued to offload Malaysian equities in the week ended Feb 3, 2023, to the sum of RM380.8mil net.
The amount was 89.6% higher than in the prior week, extending net foreign outflow from Bursa Malaysia for the fourth consecutive week.
The foreign interest in Malaysian equities compared with that of other markets in the region continued to diverge as offshore funds poured into Asian equities for the fifth consecutive week last week.
Taking into account the eight Asian exchanges tracked by MIDF Research, it said there was a combined net foreign inflow of US$3.21bil over the past week.
MIDF said in its weekly fund flow report that the selling on the local bourse could be owing to new political developments on the local front.
"There may be renewed signs of political uncertainties that have emerged following the sacking and suspension of senior and influential UMNO members, as the party is part of the unity government. renewed signs of political uncertainties that have emerged following the sacking and suspension of senior and influential Umno members.
"The appointment of the Prime Minister’s daughter as his economic and senior adviser also sparked debates from various parties, who have alleged nepotism and cronyism and that it would affect the country’s corruption perception index ranking," said the research firm.
Over the week in review, the three sectors that saw the highest net inflow from foreign investors included consumer products and services (RM58.7mil), technology (RM23.7mil) and telecommunications and media (RM15.7mil).
The sectors with the highest registered outflow were financial services (RM174mil), healthcare (RM43.3mil) and plantation (RM35.9mil).
Local institutions helped to elevate the performance of Bursa Malaysia with a fourth straight week of net purchases valued at RM130.6mil.
Local retailers turned net buyers over the week with net buying of RM49.4mil.
In terms of participation, MIDF said there was an increase in average daily trading volume (ADTV) across the board by 64.7%, 19.6% and 7.8% from foreign investors, local institutions and local retailers respectively.
