FOREIGN funds have continued to leave the Malaysian equity market with net selling having escalated to -RM556.9 mil last week. The amount was about 64% higher than the amount net sold during the previous week ended March 3.
Every trading day was a net selling day by the foreign investors. The highest was on Monday (March 6) where net selling totalled -RM183.1 mil before eventually moderating to -RM58.2 mil on Thursday (Feb 9) – the day Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) decided to maintain the overnight policy rate (OPR) at 2.75%.
“However, it (net selling) picked up pace again on Friday (March 10) with an outflow of -RM140.1 mil,” observed MIDF Research in its weekly fund flow report. Year-to-date (YTD), foreign investors have net sold -RM1.24 bil worth of domestic equities.
Sectors that saw net foreign inflows were construction (RM67.9 mil), technology (RM13.2 mil) and transportation & logistics (RM7.8 mil), while the sectors that saw net foreign outflows were financial services (-RM-359.5 mil), industrial products & services (-RM90.3 mil) and consumer products & services (-RM63.5 mil).
On the contrary, local institutions net bought domestic equities for the second consecutive week to the tune of RM461.3 mil. The amount was about 56% higher than the amount that they have net bought in the past two weeks.
Every trading day last week was a net buying day by the local institutions with the heaviest inflow recorded on Monday (March 6) at RM161.1 mol. YTD, local institutions have net bought RM1.20 bil worth of domestic equities.
At the same time, local retailers also continued to be net buyers for the third consecutive week at a rate of RM95.6 mil. Every trading day was a net buying day by the retailers except for Tuesday which saw a net outflow of -RM4.4 mil. YTD, local retailers were net buyers at RM44.5 mil.
In terms of participation, there was a decrease in average daily trading volume (ADTV) among local retailers (-3.5%), local institutions (-14.7%) and foreign investors (-33.1%).
In comparison with another four Southeast Asian markets tracked by MIDF Research last week, Vietnam posted the biggest foreign fund inflow during the week at US$38.6 mil followed by Indonesia (US$25.7 mil) while Thailand again recorded the highest net outflow at US$297.5 mil followed by Malaysia (US$123.8 mil) and the Philippines (US$7.9 mil).
The top three stocks with the highest net money inflow from foreign investors last week were Gamuda Bhd (RM68.2 mil), TIME dotCom Bhd (RM28.1 mil) and Nationgate Holdinhs Bhd (RM22.1 mil). – March 13, 2023
