FOREIGN investors maintained their net buying spree on Malaysian equities for the second consecutive week with a net foreign inflow of RM246.2 mil last week – the strongest net buy since the week ended Nov 11, 2022.
They have been accumulating stocks listed on Bursa Malaysia ahead of the revised Budget 2023 announcement on Friday that came with a +4.2% increase in allocations to RM388 bil, according to MIDF Research.
“They net bought every day last week with the strongest net inflows on Monday (Feb 20) and Tuesday (Feb 21) at RM61.5 mil and RM77.6 mil respectively,” the research house revealed in its weekly fund flow report.
“Foreign investors also net bought RM48.2 mil on Wednesday (Feb 23), RM41.0 mil on Thursday (Feb 24) and RM18.0 mil (Feb 24) on Friday. Year-to-date (YTD), foreign investors have net sold RM347.1 mil worth of equities from Bursa Malaysia.”
The top three sectors which saw net inflows by foreign investors last week were financial services at RM111.4 mil, energy (RM60.9 mil) and healthcare (RM54.8 mil) while the bottom three sectors with net outflows were plantation (-RM38.3 mil), consumer products and services (-RM28.1 mil) and property (-RM11.6 mil).
On the contrary, local institutions maintained their net selling stance for the second consecutive week, recording an outflow of -RM379.1 mil last week. They were net sellers every day of the week with the steepest net sell on Wednesday (Feb 22) at -RM143.0 mil.
They also net sold -RM77.2 mil on Monday (Feb 20), -RM74.2 mil on Tuesday (Feb 21), -RM72.8 mil on Thursday (Feb 23) and -RM11.9 mil on Friday (Feb 24).
Elsewhere, local retailers also returned as net buyers last week at RM132.9 mil after briefly turning net sellers at -RM55.1 mil in the week prior.
They net bought RM15.7 mil on Monday (Feb 20), RM94.8 mil on Wednesday (Feb 22) and RM31.8 mil on Thursday (Feb 23). Their net selling days were on Tuesday (Feb 21) and Friday (Feb 24) at -RM3.4 mil and -RM6.1 mil respectively.
In terms of participation, there was an increase in average daily trading volume (ADTV) among foreign investors by +10.0% while retail investors and local institutions saw declines of -0.7% and -4.0% respectively.
In comparison with another four Southeast Asian markets tracked by MIDF Research last week, Malaysia recorded the biggest foreign fund inflow with US$55.5 mil followed by Indonesia (US$20.1 mil) while Thailand saw the biggest outflow with US$563.1 mil followed by Vietnam (US$59.8 mil) and the Philippines (US$30.2 mil).
The top three stocks with the highest net money inflow from foreign investors last week were CIMB Group Holdings Bhd (RM70.9.mil), DiGi.com Bhd (RM59.7 mil) and Gamuda Bhd (RM45.6 mil). – Feb 20, 2023
