Foreign selling on Bursa drops to RM28.28m

PETALING JAYA: Foreign net outflow subsided to the tune of RM28.38 million in the second week of October, lower than the preceding week’s of RM543.91 million.

MIDF Research said last week, retailers and foreign investors were net sellers of RM12.47 million and RM28.38 million worth of domestic equities respectively albeit with lower figures than in prior week, with only local institutions as net buyers at RM40.86 million net during the same period.

“This marks the third consecutive week of local institution as net buyer in Bursa,“ it said in its fund flow report.

As market reopened on Monday last week, foreign investors and local institutions acquired RM34.12 million and RM19.27 million net of local equities respectively, with only retailers as net sellers at RM53.39 million.

However, the foreign net inflow reversed as the week went by, with Tuesday and Wednesday saw foreign investors turned net sellers. The largest outflow was on Wednesday at RM161.56 million and smallest outflow was on Tuesday at RM66.86 million. The net outflow on both days could be primarily due to the sudden halt in US stimulus deal talks by US President Donald Trump.

After two consecutive days of foreign net outflow, the foreign investors turned net buyers again on Thursday and Friday with the largest foreign net inflow of RM127.33 million on Friday last week. This was probably due to the revival of US stimulus deal negotiations that dwarfed weaker-than-expected jobs data.

So far in 2020, foreign investors net selling has reached RM22.35 billion worth of equities on Bursa.

“In comparison to another three South East Asian markets that we tracked last week, Malaysia recorded the least foreign net outflow while Thailand experienced the biggest outflow compare to the others,“ said MIDF.

In terms of participation, the retail investors recorded a weekly increase of 11.93% in average daily trade value (ADTV) while the foreign investor experienced the least increase of ADTV of 0.23%.