Foreign funds continue net selling of Malaysian stocks for sixth week

KUALA LUMPUR: The net outflow of foreign funds from Bursa Malaysia continued into its sixth week with RM336.mil net sales, its longest selling streak since a 12-week sell-off in mid-2023.

Risk appetite for equities fell over the past week as US March jobs data showed more worker hires and growing wages, suggesting the world's largest economy remained in rude health and further weakening the case for interest rate cuts.

In Malaysia, MIDF reported that the the year-to-date net foreign outflow widened to RM1.21bil.

"The sectors with the highest net foreign inflows were property (RM104.4mil), construction (RM36.9mil), and healthcare (RM14.6mil), while the sectors that recorded the highest net foreign outflows were financial services (RM417mil), industrial products and services (RM46mil), and consumer products and services (RM29.9mil)," said the research firm in its weekly fund flow report.

Local institutions, however, continued to pick up Malaysian equities for a sixth straight week with a net purchase of RM557.4mil.

Local retailers maintained their net selling for a fourth consecutive week, disposing of RM221.4mil.

MIDF said the average daily trading volume declined across all investor classes last week.

"Foreign investors saw a dip of –15.7% while retail and institutional investors saw declines of –0.5% and –1.8% respectively," it said.