KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign funds returned to Bursa Malaysia last week, as net foreign inflows jumped to RM69.5 million during the trading week that ended April 14, from RM18.8 million in the previous week, thus marking the third consecutive week of inflows, said MIDF Research yesterday.
In its fund flow report for the week, the research house said although foreign investors showed a predominantly negative bias for the week with net selling seen during three of the five trading days, the effect was offset by net buying on Thursday and Friday.
“Foreign investors net sold RM27.3 million on Monday, RM8.4 million on Tuesday and RM23.7 million on Wednesday, but Thursday saw the largest net inflow at RM112.2 million, followed by Friday with a net inflow of RM16.8 million,” it added.
MIDF Research said the top three sectors that saw net foreign inflows last week were technology (RM32.3 million), financial services (RM26.8 million), and plantation (RM24.2 million), while the top three sectors that saw net foreign outflows were utilities (RM42.5 million), healthcare (RM38.3 million) and REITs (RM8.5 million).
Year-to-date, foreigners have net sold Malaysian equities for nine out of 15 weeks of the year, totalling RM1.83 billion.
Meanwhile, institutional investors remained net buyers for the week, but recorded net selling to the tune of RM48.7 million and RM22.3 million on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
“Year-to-date, institutional investors have been net buyers for 11 out of 15 weeks, with a cumulative total of RM1.82 billion,” said MIDF Research. Local retailers continued their trend of net selling for the third consecutive week, amounting to RM73.1 million.
MIDF Research said although local retailers net bought RM6.8 million on Wednesday and RM5.6 million on Friday, they were net sellers for the rest of the week.
“So far this year, local retailers have net sold for eight out of 15 weeks, with a cumulative total of RM50.2 million,” it added.
The research house added that in terms of participation, the average daily trading volume (ADTV) had increased among local retailers (+11.1 per cent), local institutions (+15.5 per cent) and foreign investors (+20.5 per cent). – BERNAMA
