KUALA LUMPUR: Major markets ended higher ahead of a much-anticipated week, which will see the US Federal Open Market Committee convene for a meeting again to decide on the interest rates, said MIDF Research.
It said the market is currently expecting a rate pause by the US Federal Reserve.
In its Fund Flow Report for the week ended June 9, 2023, the research firm said local institutional investors remained net buyers of Malaysian stocks with a total of RM333.7 million.
“They net bought every day, the bulk of it on Thursday and Friday at RM151.0 million and RM100.0 million, respectively.
“Year-to-date, they have been net buyers for 17 of 23 weeks with a total of RM3.12 billion,” it said.
MIDF Research said that at the same time, local retailers continued their net buying activities for the third consecutive week at RM110.2 million and only net sold RM13.3 million on Friday but were net buyers for the other trading days.
“Year-to-date, retailers have been net buyers for 12 out of 23 weeks with a total of RM283.6 million,” it said.
In terms of participation, MIDF Research noted that there was a decline in average daily trading volume (ADTV) across the board among retail investors (14.9 per cent), local institutions (19.9 per cent) and foreign investors (55.2 per cent).
Meanwhile, in conjunction with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s Birthday celebration on Monday, the shortened trading week on Bursa Malaysia saw a fund outflow by foreign investors.
MIDF Research said foreign investors continued to net sell Malaysian equities for the eighth consecutive week at RM443.8 million last week.
It pointed out that this frequency of weekly net selling was last seen in May 2021, which may have been exacerbated by the weak April 2023 Industrial Production Index (IPI), which recorded its first IPI decline in 20 months, falling by -3.3 per cent year-on-year on the back of contractions in all major sectors.
Similar to the week before, it said foreigners net sold every day last week, and they have been net selling for nine consecutive trading days. They net sold RM99.1 million on Tuesday, RM98.2 million on Wednesday, RM159.9 million on Thursday and RM86.7 million on Friday.
“The top three sectors that saw net foreign inflows last week were transportation and logistics (RM37.0 million), construction (RM12.2 million) and technology (RM0.3 million).
“Sectors with the most outflows were financial services (RM102.5 million), consumer products and services (RM78.2 million) and industrials (RM65.3 million),” it said.
Year-to-date, foreigners have net sold Malaysian equities for 17 out of 23 weeks, totalling RM3.40 billion.
MIDF Research added that other Asian markets which saw fund outflows by foreigners were the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam. – BERNAMA
