KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign investment in Malaysian equities turned positive again for the week ended Aug 16, 2024, following a heavy sell-off seen in the week prior.
Offshore funds were net buyers of RM299.6mil of Bursa Malaysia stocks with net buying registered on everyday of the week except for Monday.
According to MIDF Research, the three sectors with the highest net value of foreign buying were financial services (RM620.6mil(), telecommunications and media (RM93.9mil) and transport and logistics (RM40.8mil).
Sectors that registered the highest net sales by investors included technology (RM143.8mil), property (RM113.3mil) and industrial products and services (RM100.7mil).
As the positive sentiment in global equities took flight, Asian markets were the beneficiary of a net inflow of foreign funds last week, with MIDF recording US$4.01bil in net equities purchased over the eight regional markets it monitors.
This tracked the strong performance in Wall Street during the week as optimism over moderately lower inflation figures in the US helped buoy expectations that the Federal Reserve will be able to pull off a soft landing.
In Malaysia, local institutions, which helped to support the market during the sell-off in the week of Aug 5-9, 2024, turned sellers last week with a net disposal of RM328.9mil.
Local retailers were net buyers with a sum of RM29.3mil.
"The average daily trading volume (ADTV) showed declines across all investor classes. Local retailers recorded the highest decline at 45%, while local institutions and foreign investors recorded declines of 39.9% and 43.5%
respectively," said MIDF.
