KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign investors remained as net sellers on Bursa Malaysia for the fifth consecutive week, with net foreign outflows amounting to RM211 million during the week ended May 19, 2023, said MIDF Research.
In its Fund Flow Report today, it said foreign investors have been net sellers of Malaysian equities for 14 out of 20 weeks this year, with a total net foreign outflow of RM2.39 billion.
“Every trading day last week was a net selling day by foreigner investors, except for Thursday when there was a net foreign inflow of RM38.5 million,” it said.
On Thursday, foreign investors picked up heavyweights such as Maybank (RM16.9 million), Top Glove (RM9.9 million), IHH Healthcare (RM9.8 million) and Inari Amertron (RM8.2 million), MIDF Research said.
However, they returned to net selling on Friday when data released by the Statistics Department revealed that Malaysia’s trade growth declined by 14.5% year-on-year in April 2023, largely due to lower domestic exports.
Last week, only three sectors saw net foreign inflows, namely transport and logistics (RM37.4 million), technology (RM3.3 million) and healthcare (RM1.9 million), while the top three sectors that saw net foreign outflows were consumer products and services (RM70.0 million), industrial products and services (RM40.5 million) and financial services (RM32.5 million).
Meanwhile, local institutional investors remained net buyers for the fourth consecutive week, to the tune of RM355.6 million.
“Every trading day was a net buying day by the local institutions, with the biggest net inflow recorded on Tuesday at RM105.3 million.
“Year-to-date, they have been net buyers for 15 out of 20 weeks, with a total net inflow of RM2.45 billion,” said MIDF Research.
Conversely, local retailers continued their net selling of local equities for the third consecutive week, amounting to RM144.6 million.
Every trading day was a net selling day by the local retailers, with the heaviest outflow recorded on Thursday at RM65.1 million.
Year-to-date, local retailers have been net sellers for 11 out of 20 weeks, resulting in a total net outflow of RM51.2 million.
In terms of participation, there was a decline in average daily trading volume across the board namely retailers (-4.8%), local institutions (-5.6%) and foreigners (-10.5%). – Bernama