FOREIGN funds have maintained their net buying position on Bursa Malaysia for the fourth consecutive week with an elevated net inflow of RM451.7 mil for the week ended Aug 12.
This was +16.4% higher than the RM388.21 mil seen the previous week, according to MIDF Research.
“The week started with the foreign funds net buying on Monday (Aug 8) and Tuesday (Aug 9) amounting to RM530,000 and RM15.8 mil respectively,” observed the research house in its weekly fund flow report.
“Despite the concerns of US inflation on Wednesday (Aug 10), foreign funds net sold amount stood at only -RM3.8 mil. This was the only day of net selling by foreigners.”
The bulk of the net buying happened on Thursday (Aug 11) and Friday (Aug 12) at RM232.9 mil and RM206.2 mil respectively after the release of lower than expected US inflation data and stronger than expected Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) data.
Meanwhile, local institutions continued to be net sellers for the fifth week at a rate of -RM573 mil which was more than double the amount from the previous week at -RM266.9 mil. In fact, they have been net sellers for eight consecutive trading days since Aug 3.
On the other hand, local retailers reversed their net selling trend over three weeks with a net buy of RM121.3 mil for the week. They were net buyers from Monday (Aug 8) to Wednesday (Aug 10) and on Friday (Aug 12) but were net sellers on Thursday (Aug 11).
To date, international funds have been net buyers for 21 out of the 32 weeks of 2022 with a total net inflow of RM7.11 bil.
Local institutions were net sellers for 25 out of 32 weeks with a total net outflow of -RM8.8 bil while local retailers have been net buyers for 20 out of 32 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 local institutional investors by +1.05% but reductions in ADTV were seen among foreign investors and local retailers by -3.57% and -3.36% respectively.
In comparison with another three Southeast Asian markets tracked by MIDF Research last week, Thailand again posted the highest net inflow by foreign funds at US$407.88 mil followed by Indonesia (US$284.311 mil) and Malaysia (US$101.61 mil).
However, the Philippines saw a massive net outflow of -US$201.01 mil.
The top three stocks with the highest net money inflow last week were Tenaga Nasional Bhd (RM4.22 mil), CIMB Group Holdings Bhd (RM2.26 mil) and Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd (RM2.17 mil). – Aug 15, 2022
