PETALING JAYA: Foreign fund exit continued for the ninth week last week with RM382.6 million sold during the holiday-shortened week ending May 24, said MIDF Research.
According to the research house, the week started on Tuesday with a moderate outflow of RM74.2 million, the lowest in 10 trading days.
“In comparison with other regional peers, the level of foreign net selling on Tuesday on Bursa was lower than Indonesia and Taiwan amidst jitters caused by President Trump’s crackdown on Huawei Technologies Inc,” it said in its fund flow report today.
However, foreign net outflow swelled to RM178.7 million on Thursday with the local bourse slipping 0.1%, closing at 1,602 points as the latest US Federal Reserve minutes indicated that the rate cut which markets are expecting by year-end may not necessarily materialise.
“In addition, sentiment on that day was weighed down by reports of the US government considering more bans on several Chinese technology companies,” said MIDF Research.
The foreign outflow took a slight breather on Friday, with only RM129.6 million local equities disposed off that day.
“Threats from the US to impose duties on nations which undervalue their currencies against the greenback kept the foreign net selling activity from going down below RM100 million,” it said.
So far in May, Malaysia has recorded a foreign outflow of RM2.09 billion. This brings the foreign net outflow year-to-date figure to RM4.85 billion.
Last week, foreign investors were the only investor group which saw an increase in participation. The average daily traded value of foreign investors surged by 20.5% to RM1.46 billion, a level not observed in 10 weeks.
