UPBEAT economic data was instrumental for turning foreign investors into net buyers on Bursa Malaysia with an inflow of RM749.34 mil for the week ended Feb 11.
The three economic data were (i) Malaysia’s Industrial Production Index (IPI) which moderated to +5.8% year-on-year (yoy) in December 2021; (ii) Malaysia’s distributive trade sales where growth moderated to +3.5% yoy in December 2021; and (iii) Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) where economic growth advanced by +3.6% in 4Q 2021.
“So far in 2022, international funds have been net buyers on Bursa Malaysia for four out of six weeks,” observed MIDF Research in its weekly fund flow report. “Last week’s net buying by foreign investors was also the highest for the year.”
The previous highest net buying by foreigners was in the second week of January (week ended Jan 14) with RM397.85 mil.
Foreigners were net buyers during every session of the week. Again, the last time this occurred was in the week ended Jan 14. The largest foreign inflow was recorded on Wednesday (Feb 9) at RM279.64 mil while the smallest inflow was on Monday (Feb 7) at only RM21.82 mil.
The pace of foreign investor net inflow continued to be robust on Thursday (Feb 10) and Friday (Feb 11) where net inflows amounted to RM228.44 mil and RM165.36 mil respectively.
On the contrary, local institutions were active sellers last week. Their largest net outflow was on Wednesday (Feb 9) while the smallest was on Monday (Feb 7) to the tune of -RM261.35 mil and -RM32.37 mil respectively.
As for the retailers, they were net sellers for every session of the week except on Monday (Feb 7) with an inflow of RM10.55 mil.
Their largest net selling occurred on Thursday (Feb 10) to the tune of -RM64.83 mil while their smallest net selling was on Tuesday (Feb 8) at -RM8.44 mil.
Overall, foreign investors finished strong as net buyers in the sixth week of 2022 at RM749.34 mil followed by retailers and local institutions at -RM100.17 mil and -RM649.18 mil respectively.
On a year-to-date basis, we have observed RM1.052 bil in net inflows from foreign investors. Meanwhile, net buying by retailers is marginal at RM980,000 while local institutions were net sellers amounting to -RM1.053 bil.
In comparison with another three Southeast Asian markets tracked by MIDF Research last week, all countries recorded inflow with Thailand leading the pack at US$1.29 bil followed by Indonesia (US$532.26 mil), Malaysia (US$179.05 mil) and the Philippines (US$111.6 mil).
The top three stocks with the highest net money inflow last week were Hartalega Holdings Bhd (RM4.99 mil), Public Bank Bhd (RM3.93 mil) and Nestle (M) Bhd (RM3.66 mil). – Feb 14, 2022
