FOREIGN investors posted their third consecutive week of net buying last week as Malaysia saw RM388.2 mil of net foreign inflows – more than a two-fold increase from the week prior.
They were net sellers only on Tuesday (Aug 2) but this was more than offset by net inflows for the remaining trading days, according to MIDF Research.
“In fact, foreign investors started off the week by net buying RM49.7 mil worth of equities before turning net sellers on Tuesday (Aug 2) with -RM40 mil,” observed the research house in its weekly fund flow report.
“The buying spree continued on Wednesday (Aug 3) at RM75 mil while Thursday (Aug 4) saw the strongest net foreign inflow of RM284.2 mil – an amount last seen at the end of May. Foreigners then net bought RM19.3 mil to close off the week.”
On the contrary, local institutions remained as net sellers for the fourth consecutive week at a pace of -RM266.9 mil – almost four times the amount that they have net sold in the previous week.
They were net buyers only on Tuesday (Aug 2) at RM68.3 mil but this was insufficient to cushion the selling activities that took place during the rest of the week. Thursday (Aug 4) saw the largest net selling at a rate of -RM205.5 mil.
Meanwhile, the net selling amount was -RM21.7 mil on Monday (Aug 1), -RM80.2 mil on Wednesday (Aug 3) and -RM27.7 mil on Friday (Aug 5).
Meanwhile, local retailers, remained net sellers for the third consecutive week last week at -RM121.4 mil. Their heaviest outflow was posted on Thursday (Aug 4) at -RM78.7 mil while Monday (Aug 1) and Tuesday (Aug 2) recorded softer net outflows of -RM28 mil and -RM28.3 mil respectively.
However, they were briefly net buyers on Wednesday (Aug 3) and Friday (Aug 5) at RM5.2 mil and RM8.5 mil respectively.
To date, international funds have been net buyers for 20 out of the 31 weeks of 2022 with a total net inflow of RM6.65 bil. Local institutions were net sellers for 24 out of 31 weeks with a total net outflow of -RM8.23 bil while local retailers have been net buyers for 19 out of 31 weeks of 2022. Year-to-date (YTD), they have net bought RM1.57 bil.
In terms of participation, all investor classes recorded an increase in average daily trade volume (ADTV) with retail investors at +11.4%, institutional investors (+3.7%) and foreign investors (+5.7%).
In comparison with another three Southeast Asian markets tracked by MIDF Research last week, Thailand posted the highest net inflow by foreign funds at US$129.88 mil followed by Malaysia (US$87.1 mil) and the Philippines (US$13.4 mil). However, Indonesia saw a massive net outflow of -US$$ 185.82 ml.
The top three stocks with the highest net money inflow last week were Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd (RM4.57 mil), Press Metal Aluminium Holdings Bhd (RM3.3 mil) and Heineken Malaysia Bhd. – Aug 8, 2022
