Retailers hold the fort at Bursa as unloading by foreign investors continues

FOREIGN investors were again net sellers for the second week running during the period ended Jan 29 with an outflow amounting to -RM534.78 mil.

As market reopened on Monday (Jan 25) last week, foreign investors sold -RM199.66 mil net of local equities with retailers and local institutions as net buyers to the tune of RM72.69 mil and RM126.97 mil respectively.

According to MIDF Research, foreign investors were net sellers every day during the week except Friday (Jan 29).

“This came amid record COVID-19 cases and assurances by the Finance Minister that there will be no repeat of total lockdown similar to last year,” the research house pointed out in its weekly fund flow report.

The largest foreign outflow was recorded on Tuesday (Jan 26) at -RM298.69 mil while the smallest outflow was on Thursday (Jan 28) at -RM81.30 mil.

On the contrary, retailers were net buyers for the entire of last week. Their largest net buying was recorded on Tuesday (Jan 26) at RM286.74 mil while the smallest net purchase was on Monday (Jan 25).

Like the foreign investors, it was also a negative net outflow for local institutions last week, albeit the latter recording a smaller net outflow amount.

Buying were recorded on Monday (Jan 25) and Tuesday (Jan 26) with cumulative net inflow of RM138.92 mil but this was overwhelmed by bigger net selling activities which resulted in a cumulative net selling of -RM195.20 mil.

“The biggest net outflow was on Friday (Jan 29) with net selling of -RM154.75 mil,” noted MIDF Research.

Since the beginning of 2021 – cumulatively – retailers are the only net buyers of in the Malaysian equity market with an inflow of RM1.75 bil while both local institutions and foreign investors have been net sellers to the tune of -RM919.25 mil and -RM833.87 mil respectively.

In comparison to another three Southeast Asian markets tracked by MIDF Research last week, all markets recorded net outflow with Thailand posting the biggest amount at US$442.51 mil, followed by Malaysia (US$132.14 mil), the Philippines (US$137.92 mil) and Indonesia (US$21.98 mil).

In terms of participation, retail investors recorded a weekly decrease of 6.28% in average daily trade value (ADTV) while foreign investors and local institutions experienced declines in ADTV of 72.79% and 10.90% respectively.

The top three stocks with the highest net money inflow last week were Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd (RM1.83 mil), Westports Holdings Bhd (RM1.38 mil) and Press Metal Aluminium Holdings Bhd (RM1.21 mil). – Feb 2, 2021

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