Foreign investors stay net buyers on Bursa Malaysia at RM873.9mil

KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign investors remained net buyers on Bursa Malaysia for the fourth consecutive week last week, albeit at a more moderate rate of RM873.9mil, down from RM961.1mil the previous week.

“This has overturned the year-to-date foreign outflows, into a net inflow of RM4.9mil,” MIDF said in its weekly fund flow report.

The research firm noted that ongoing interest in our local market might be driven by economic optimism, supported by a 4.2% year-on-year increase in GDP during the first quarter of 2024 period.

This exceeded both the 3.9% growth forecast by a Reuters poll and the advance estimates released by the government.

“Foreign funds were net buyers in Malaysia throughout last week, with the highest being on Wednesday with a net inflow of RM299.98mil.

“This was a start of strong net buying by foreign funds as subsequent days saw a net inflow of more than RM100mil every day (Thursday: RM269.2mil, Friday: RM184.3mil),” MIDF said.

The sectors that saw the most significant net foreign inflows were transportation & logistics with RM223.6mil, utilities with RM189.1mil, and healthcare at RM183.3mil.

On the other hand, sectors with net foreign outflows were plantation (-RM64.7mil) and construction (-RM6.7mil).

Meanwhile, local institutions continued their net selling streak for the third week in a row, with a total of -RM379.7mil.

For the tenth week in a row, local retailers persisted in divesting domestic equities, amounting to a total of -RM494.1mil.

In terms of participation, average daily trading volume increased for local retailers (+27.1%), local institutions (+18.0%), and foreign investors (+8.5%).