KUALA LUMPUR: The inflow of foreign funds into Bursa Malaysia continued for a third straight week, although the net amount was halved to RM422.6mil from the previous week's RM853.8mil.
The return of foreign interest in Malaysian equities was in line with the net buying activity seen in other Asian markets.
According to MIDF Research, there was a substantial net inflow of US$4.65bil over the eight Asian markets it monitors, with India and Taiwan leading sentiment.
"Among the markets tracked, only Indonesia registered net foreign outflows, while all other countries saw net foreign inflows," it said in its weekly fund flow report.
In Malaysia, the sectors with the most net foreign inflows were utilities (RM253.3mil), telecommunications and media (RM53.3mil) and financial services (RM51.1mil).
Only two sectors recorded net foreign outflows - namely energy (RM57.5mil) and technology (RM56mil).
Meanwhile, local institutions sold down their local holdings for a fourth straight week, with a net outflow of RM397.8mil.
Local retail retails were also net sellers for a fourth consecutive week, with an outflow of RM24.8mil, much reduced from the RM161.2mil recorded in the prior week.
The average daily trading volume (ADTV) saw a broad-based increase last week. Local institutions and local retailers saw an increased participation of 8.6% and 2.9% respectively, while foreign investors saw an increase of 6.1%.
