FOREIGN funds continued to flow into Malaysia for the second consecutive week as they net bought RM152.9 mil last week.
They were net sellers only on Tuesday (July 26) at -RM14 mil just prior to the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting but this was easily negated by the net inflows recorded over the four other trading days, according to MIDF Research.
“The strongest net inflow from foreign funds were on Thursday (July 28) at RM50.5 mil which was during and after the FOMC meeting,” observed the research house in its weekly fund flow report.
The week started for foreign investors with a net inflow of RM25.1 mil on Monday (July 25) and ended with a net inflow of RM18.9 mil on Friday (July 29).
Meanwhile, local institutions maintained their net selling stance for the third week running at -RM70.7 mil. They were net sellers at -RM62.8 mil on Thursday (July 28), -RM36.9 mil on Wednesday (July 27) and -RM11.5 mil on Monday (July 25).
These were, however, softened by net buys on Tuesday (July 26) and Friday (July 29) at RM15.2 mil and RM25.4 mil respectively.
Likewise, local retailers remained net sellers last week at RM82.3 mil. They were net sellers every session of the week with the heaviest outflow on Friday (July 29) at -RM44.3 mil and the lowest on Tuesday (July 26) at -RM1.2 mil. All-in-all, local retailers have been net sellers for eight consecutive trading days.
The top three sectors which saw net inflows by foreign investors were financial services, utilities, and consumer products and services with RM222.8 mil, RM49.8 mil and RM25.1 mil respectively.
Meanwhile, the top three sectors with net outflows were industrial products and services at -RM86 mil, technology (-RM59.2 mil) and plantation (-RM12.5 mil).
To date, international funds have been net buyers for 19 out of the 30 weeks of 2022 with a total net inflow of RM6.27 bil while local institutions were net sellers for 23 out of 30 weeks with a total net outflow of -RM7.96 bil.
Local retailers have been net buyers for 19 out of 30 weeks of 2022. Year-to-date, they have been net buyers at RM1.7 bil.
In terms of participation, there was an increase in average daily trade value (ADTV) among retail and institutional investors by +10.98% and +17.17% respectively. However, there was a decline in ADTV among foreign investors by -8.81%.
In comparison with another three Southeast Asian markets tracked by MIDF Research last week, Indonesia posted the highest net inflow by foreign funds at US$129.88 mil followed by Thailand (US$118.88 mil) and Malaysia (US$34.345 mil) while the Philippines recorded its first foreign net inflow in 20 weeks with US$9.89 mil.
The top three stocks with the highest net money inflow last week were IHH Healthcare Bhd (RM3.08 mil), Inari Amerton Bhd (RM2.56 mil) and Sime Darby Plantation Bhd (RM1.56 mil). – Aug 1, 2022
