Foreign funds make Bursa comeback as net buyers

AFTER a dearth of presence, foreign investors re-emerged as net buyers for the week of Dec 21-24 with an inflow of RM223.80 mil.

As market re-opened last Monday (Dec 21), foreign investors sold -RM32 mil net of local equities with retailers and local institutions as net buyers to the tune of RM16.67 mil and RM15.3 mil respectively.

However, foreigners turned net buyers on Wednesday (Dec 23) and Thursday (Dec 24) with inflow amounting to RM265.11 mil and RM59.19 mil respectively after two consecutive days of net selling, according to MIDF Research.

“Last week was the first net inflow from foreign investors since early November,” the research house pointed out in its weekly fund flow report.

“Cumulatively, foreign investors were the net sellers with outflow of -RM735.86 mil for the month of December which is lower than the outflow in November of circa -RM1.03 bil.”

For last week, retailers were active buyers on every day of the week except on Wednesday (Dec 23). The largest net inflow was on Tuesday (Dec 22) and smallest on Thursday (Dec 24) to the tune of RM34.3 mil and RM5.5 mil respectively.

“It was almost opposite for local institutions,” observed MIDF Research. “The market saw local institutions as net sellers every day except early in the week.”

The largest net selling was recorded on Wednesday (Dec 23) at -RM239.28 mil and biggest net buying was on Tuesday (Dec 22) at RM34.26 mil.

“As 2020 is inching closer to the end, retailers and local institutions have been net buyers for Bursa,” the research house pointed out. “Retailers are net buyers to the tune of RM13.64 bil, larger than local institutions at RM10.62 bil while foreign investors’ net selling has reached -RM24.76 bil.”

In comparison to another three Southeast Asian markets tracked by MIDF Research last week, Thailand recorded the most foreign net inflow at US$126.32 mil followed by Malaysia (US$55.09 mil) and Indonesia (US$6.5 mil) while the Philippines experienced an outflow of US$2.17 mil.

In terms of participation, retail investors recorded a weekly decrease of -21.46% in average daily trade value (ADTV) while foreign investors and local institutions experienced declines in ADTV of -52.77% and -34.19% respectively.

The top three stocks with the highest net money inflow last week were Dialog Group Bhd (RM1.71 mil) followed by IJM Corp Bhd (RM1.7 mil) and Public Bank Bhd (RM1.69 mil). – Dec 28, 2020

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