KUALA LUMPUR – Foreign investors remained net buyers of local equities on Bursa Malaysia last week, with fund inflows rising to RM964.2 million compared with RM6.6 million in the previous week.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said investors began the week as net buyers after acquiring RM6.7 million net of local equities on Monday amid increased risk-on mode among investors, propelled by stronger Brent crude oil prices.
“On further scrutiny, perhaps Malaysia’s new prime minister, who was sworn in on the Saturday of the previous week, might have instilled investors’ confidence towards the country’s leadership,” he said.
Adam said Tuesday recorded a foreign net inflow of RM153.6 million net as the local bourse was in a recovery mode following the selldown of the past two months.
“The appointment of the new prime minister has contributed to more stable political development in the local market, attracting foreign investors to make a comeback.
“Foreign net buying reached a higher level of RM236.5 million net on Wednesday as investors took a cue from positive US vaccination news whereby the US Food and Drug Administration on Monday issued full approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech two-dose vaccine,” he added.
Meanwhile, other countries such as China have also been exhibiting encouraging prospects in terms of handling Covid-19 as no cases of locally transmitted infections were recorded in the latest data.
“Foreign investors continued to pile into local equities on Thursday, buying RM310.7 million net on that day. Likewise, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) index closed 1.0% higher at 1585.7 points on Thursday, which outperformed most Asian peers such as Hong Kong, China, South Korea, and Indonesia, which recorded losses,” he said.
Adam noted that the anticipated announcement of the cabinet ministers’ line-up continued to drive confidence among investors towards Malaysia’s leadership.
“At the same time, expectations of the US Federal Reserve to drop hints on scaling back asset purchases during the Jackson Hole symposium on Friday waned as tapering views may be evolving due to the Delta variant. There seem to be no signs of slowdown as international investors flocked into local equities to the tune of RM256.7 million net,” he said.
So far this month, international investors have sold RM533.7 million net of local equities.
On a year-to-date basis, the foreign net selling on Bursa Malaysia stands at RM5 billion net. – Bernama, August 30, 2021
