KUALA LUMPUR – Foreign investors turned net buyers on Bursa Malaysia last week, snapping up RM570.9 million worth of equities after net selling for the past twelve consecutive weeks, said MIDF Research.
Its Fund Flow Report for the week ended July 14, 2023, noted that foreign investors’ interest started on Wednesday, with a net inflow of RM84.2 million.
This coincided with the release of positive economic data, including Malaysia’s wholesale and retail trade sector’s 6.6% year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in monthly sales value to RM138.0 billion in May 2023.
The country’s manufacturing sector also saw a 3.3% y-o-y increase in sales value to RM146.8 billion during the same month.
“The net inflows continued on Thursday and Friday, with the highest amount recorded on Friday at RM468.9 million – marking the largest net inflow since February 28, 2022, before the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes,” said MIDF Research.
It said the top three sectors that saw net foreign inflows were technology (RM115.0 million), transportation and logistics (RM102.0 million) and plantation (RM97.0 million).
Conversely, three sectors posted net foreign outflows, namely healthcare (-RM29.7 million), REITs (-RM10.2 million) and energy (-RM7.1 million).
On a year-to-date (YTD) basis, foreign investors have been net sellers of domestic equities for 21 out of 28 weeks, with a total net outflow of RM3.88 billion.
Meanwhile, local institutional investors turned net sellers of domestic equities to the tune of RM308.0 million last week, after net buying in the past twelve consecutive weeks.
“They have been net buyers of domestic equities for 21 out of 28 weeks, with a total net inflow of RM3.62 billion YTD,” it said.
Similarly, local retailers were also net sellers of local equities at RM262.9 million last week.
The local retailers have been buyers for 15 out of 28 weeks, with the total net buying at RM253.5 million YTD.
In terms of participation, there was an increase in average daily trading volume by retailers (19.9%), local institutions (22.4%) and foreign investors (33.7%). – Bernama, July 17, 2023
