KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign investors were net buyers of Bursa Malaysia equities for the fourth straight week with a total net inflow of RM798.3mil.
The sustained inflow into the Malaysian market bucked the wider regional trend, where net foreign outflows were recorded, especially in Taiwan and South Korea.
According to MIDF Research, there was a reversal in Asian markets, where a net sale of US$3.33bil in equities was registered in the eight Asia markets it tracks.
This followed from a plunge in Wall Street markets in the first week of September, where the S&P500 and Nasdaq Composite indices had their worst weekly declines so far this year.
Bursa Malaysia remained attractive to offshore funds, registering an inflow of RM286mil on Wednesday alone after Bank Negara decided to maintain the status quo on the overnight policy rate.
The three sectors that recorded the highest net foreign inflows were financial services (RM743.2mil), utilities (RM405.1mil) and healthcare (RM113.6mil).
The sectors with the highest net foreign outflows were consumer products and services (RM193.8mil), industrial products and services (RM116mil) and technology (RM68.4mil).
Local institutions were net sellers for the fourth consecutive week, totalling RM960.5mil, while local retailers were net buyers of RM162.2mil in equities.
MIDF said the average daily trading volume (ADTV) showed declines among local retailers (14.6%), local institutions (18.3%), and foreign investors (35.8%).
