THE buying spree on Bursa Malaysia by foreign investors which stretched to five consecutive weeks came to a halt last week (week ended March 1) after they net sold -RM503.1 mil worth of equities, the strongest net selling amount seen in 19 weeks.
They net bought RM189.7 mil on Tuesday (Feb 27) but were net sellers for the rest of the week with the highest net selling amount of -RM268.3 mil on Wednesday (Feb 28), according to MIDF Research.
“The sectors with the highest net foreign inflows were utilities (RM274.0 mil), transportation (RM61.4 mil) and telecommunications & media (RM31.2 mil),” the research house pointed out in its weekly fund flow report.
“The sectors with the highest net foreign outflows were financial services (-RM515.9 mil), industrial products & services (-RM107.6 mil) and plantation (-RM76.1 mil).”
As opposed to foreign investors, local institutions net bought RM443.5 mil of equities from the local bourse after five straight weeks of net selling.
Likewise, local retailers also net bought RM59.6 mil of Bursa Malaysia stocks last week after net selling for three consecutive weeks.
In terms of participation, there were increases in average daily trading volume (ADTV) across all investor classes. Local retailers saw an increase of +14.0% while local institutions and foreign investors saw increases of +13.1% and +109.8% respectively.
In comparison with another four Southeast Asian markets tracked by MIDF Research, the Philippines posted its sixth consecutive week of net foreign inflows at US$22.4 mil last week followed by Vietnam’s which ended its four-week spell of net foreign fund outflows with net buying activities amounting to US$4.5 mil.
On the contrary, foreign investors net sold -US$193.2 mil of equities in Indonesia after four straight weeks of net buying with Thailand also experienced net selling of -US$187.5 mil after a brief net buying activity the week prior.
The top three stocks with the highest net money inflow from foreign investors last week were YTL Corp Bhd (RM151.7 mil), Tenaga Nasional Bhd (RM92.8 mil) and Sime Darby Bhd (RM55.3 mil). – March 4, 2024
