FOREIGN investors net bought equities on Bursa Malaysia for the third consecutive week at RM637.8 mil, the highest since more than a year ago when they mopped up RM1.18 bil during the week ended March 18. 2022.
They net sold -RM18.6 mil on Monday (July 24) but were net buyers for the rest of the week with the highest net inflow on Friday (July 28) with RM181.4 mil.
Between Tuesday (July 25) and Friday (July 28), net inflows from foreign investors were more than RM100 mil each day (averaging RM164.1 mil daily), according to MIDF Research.
“The top three sectors which saw net inflows by foreign investors last week were utilities (RM253.4 mil), plantation (RM127.8 mil) and financial services (RM86.3 mil),” the research house pointed out in its weekly fund flow report.
“There were only three sectors with net outflows last week namely REITs (-RM22.6 mil), industrial products and services (-RM22.4 mil), and telecommunications and media (-RM8.0 mil). Year-to-date (YTD), foreign investors have net sold -RM3.06 bil worth of equities on Bursa Malaysia.”
In contrast to foreign investors, local institutions posted a third consecutive week of net selling at -RM403.9 mil, the highest since the week ended Aug 19, 2022 at -RM675.9 mil.
They only net bought RM54.0 mil on Monday (July 24) but were net sellers for the rest of the week. YTD, local institutions have recorded net buying of RM3.13 bil.
Like the local institutions, local retailers also net sold for the third consecutive week at -RM233.7 mil. They net sold during every trading session of last week – at -RM35.4 mil on Monday (July 24), Tuesday (July 25) (-RM63.8 mil), Wednesday (July 26) (-RM54.3 mil), Thursday (July 27) (-RM56.3 mil) and Friday (July 28) (-RM24.0 mil). YTD, they have net sold -RM67.9 mil.
In terms of participation, there was an increase in average daily trading volume (ADTV) across the board. It was 2.5% higher among retail investors whereas both local institutions and foreign investors saw a 7.3% increase in ADTV.
In comparison with another four Southeast Asian markets tracked by MIDF Research last week, Malaysia posted the highest net foreign fund inflow with US$140.3 mil followed by Indonesia (US$66.5 mil), Vietnam (US$33.5 mil) and the Philippines (US$5.5 mil) while Thailand encountered a net outflow of US$124.5 mil.
The top three stocks with the highest net money inflow from foreign investors last week were Tenaga Nasional Bhd (RM253.7 mil), Malayan Banking Bhd (RM108.2 mil) and Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd (RM77.0 mil) – July 31, 2023
