FOREIGN institutions extended their net selling to a third consecutive week with outflow valued at RM549.1 mil for the Aug 17-21 trading period against the prior week’s -RM623.6 mil.
They were net sellers on all five trading days during the week with the highest outflow posted on Monday (Aug 17) (-RM190.5 mil), according to MBSB Research (formerly MIDF Research).
“This was followed by Tuesday (Aug 18)) (-RM188.3 mil), Wednesday (Aug 19) (-RM124.7 mil), Thursday (Aug 20) (-RM34.9 mil) and Friday (Aug 21) (-RM10.8 mil),” observed the research house in its weekly fund flow report.
The top three sectors that recorded net inflows from foreign institutions were utilities (RM141.8 mil), transportation & logistics (RM56.6 mil) and healthcare (RM31.8 mil).
The three largest sectors with net outflows were financial services (-RM420.1 mil), technology (-RM161.0 mil) and consumer products & services (-RM101.6 mil).
On the contrary, local institutions extended their net buying streak to a fourth week with RM591.1 mil in net inflow.
However, retailers reverted to net selling after a week of net buying with outflow amounting to -RM42.0 mil.
The average daily trading volume (ADTV) saw a broad-based increase; retailers were up by +13.3%, local institutions (+13.2%) and foreign institutions (+3.2%).
In comparison with another four Southeast Asian markets tracked by MBSB Research, foreign investors reverted to net buying after a week of net selling in Indonesia with inflow of US$126.0 mil.
This came amid Bank Indonesia (BI) having kept its key policy rate unchanged at 5.75% for the second consecutive meeting in August 2026 following a cumulative 100bps of hikes since May to support the rupiah.
However, foreign investors reverted to net selling in Thailand after a week of net buying with an outflow of -US$105.1 mil as the country’s GDP (gross domestic product) growth moderated to +1.9% year-on-year (yoy) in 2Q 2026 from +2.8% in 1Q 2026 but remained above market expectations of +1.7%.
Elsewhere, foreign investors extended their net selling streak to a second week with US$101.7 mil in outflow while the Philippines saw a third successive week of foreign net outflow amounted to US$33.1 mil.
The top three stocks with the highest net money inflow from foreign investors last week were YTL Power International Bhd (RM143.2 mil), SD Guthrie Bhd (RM121.1 mil) and KPJ Healthcare Bhd (RM55.1 mil). – Aug 24, 2026
