FOREIGN investors continued their streak of net inflows on Bursa Malaysia to a fourth successive week by posting a net inflow of RM1.68 bil for the May 13-16 trading week which is nearly four times higher than the previous week’s inflow of RM422.6 mil.
Despite a Wesak Day (May 12)-shortened trading week, they were net buyers on every trading session with inflows ranging from RM185.6 mil to RM797.4 mil, according to MIDF Research.
“The three sectors that recorded the highest net foreign inflows were financial services (RM797.2 mil), utilities (RM218.6 mil) and telecommunications and media (RM179.7 mil),” observed the research house in its weekly fund flow report.
“The only two sectors that recorded net foreign outflows were energy (-RM56.3 mil) and REITs (-RM3.7 mil).”
On the reverse, local institutions further extended their streak of net selling to four consecutive weeks with outflows amounting to -RM1.35 bil which was nearly 3.5 times higher than the previous week’s outflow of -RM397.8 mil.
Meanwhile, local retail investors extended their trend of net selling to the fifth week with the net outflows increasing 13 times to -RM330.2 mil from -RM24.8 mil the week before.
The average daily trading volume (ADTV) saw a broad-based increase last week. Local institutions and local retailers saw an increase of +50.9% and +31.8% respectively while foreign investors saw an increase of +42.6%.
In comparison with another four Southeast Asian markets tracked by MIDF Research, only Indonesia recorded net inflows from foreign funds valued at US$305.5 mil to end a brief single-week selling streak.
However, Thailand faced a reversal of fortunes last week to end its two-week streak of foreign purchases with a net outflow at -US$131.0 mil followed by the Philippines which posted a modest foreign withdrawal of -US$3.8 mil last week to also end its two-week streak of foreign buying.
Vietnam was again excluded from this week’s report as its fund flow data was unavailable at the time of writing.
The top three stocks with the highest net money inflow from foreign investors last week were CIMB Group Holdings Bhd (RM312.7 mil), Malayan Banking Bhd (RM88.3 mil) and Tenaga Nasional Bhd (RM209.2 mil). – May 19, 2025
