PETALING JAYA: Foreign investors returned as net buyers of Bursa Malaysia last week, contributing to a net foreign inflow of RM267.7 million, according to MIDF Research.
In its weekly fund flow, the research house said that foreign investors only net sold RM66.6 million on Tuesday, while they were net buyers for the remaining days of the week.
MIDF pointed out that as expected, Bank Negara Malaysia kept its overnight policy rate unchanged in its first Monetary Policy Committee meeting of 2024 at 3%.
“We expect the central bank to remain status quo on its monetary policy stance throughout 2024, to ensure a sustainable growth momentum for Malaysia’s economy,” it said.
MIDF said the top three sectors with the highest net foreign inflows were financial services (RM112.2 million), utilities (RM97.3 million) and property (RM86.6 million) while the top three sectors with the highest net foreign outflows were consumer products and services (RM39.6 million), industrial products and services (RM38.0 million) and healthcare (RM21.2 million).
Furthermore, the research house remarked that local institutions turned net sellers for the week, after disposing RM167.1 million worth of equities. It added that they only net bought RM21.0 million on Tuesday albeit were net sellers for the rest of the week.
“Local retailers were still on a net selling spree, net selling of RM100.6 million last week. This is their fourth consecutive week of net selling. Like local institutions, they only net bought on Tuesday at RM45.6 million but we net sellers for the entire week,” it remarked.
In terms of participation, there was an increase in average daily trading volume among local institutions and foreign investors by 3.3% and 2.5% respectively while local retailers recorded a decrease of 14.6%.