KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign investors remained net sellers on Bursa Malaysia, with total outflows of RM761.4 million, marking the second-largest weekly outflow in five weeks.
This was on the backdrop of foreign investors net buying Asian equities for the first time in 10 weeks resulting in a total inflow of US$5.16 billion, across the eight markets MIDF Research monitor.
It said this was attributable to large inflows recorded in India and Taiwan.
All countries, except India, Taiwan, and Indonesia experienced a net outflow.
•For the fourth consecutive week, foreign net outflows in South Korea continued, reaching US$157.76 million, recording the highest net outflow in the week among the eight markets MIDF Research monitors (besides Malaysia).
According to MIDF Research, Bursa Malaysia saw net foreign outflows every single day last week, with Monday recording the highest outflow at RM248.8 million.
It was the seventh consecutive week of net selling by foreign investors.
The top three sectors that saw net selling activities by foreign investors were financial services (-RM594.1million), utilities (-RM475.9 million), and transportation & logistics (-RM53.8 million)," it said in the fund flow report.
The top three sectors that saw net buying activities by foreign investors were healthcare (RM238. million), plantation (RM93.1 million), and industrial products & services (RM72.8 million).
MIDF Research said local institutions were the primary supporters of the local bourse, registering an inflow of RM1.06 billion.
"There were no outflows in the entire week from this investor class, with Monday and Tuesday seeing the highest inflows at RM245.6 million and RM284.1 million, respectively," it said.
They added that local retailers remained as net sellers last week, with outflows totalling RM299.9 million, almost 30 times more than the previous week's outflows.
"Every day saw an outflow from this investor group, except for Monday, which recorded an inflow of RM3.2 million. The heaviest outflow was registered on Wednesday, amounting to RM125.7 million," it said.
MIDF Research noted that the average daily trading volume (ADTV) declined across all investor categories except for local retail investors.
Foreign investors and local institutional investors experienced a fall in ADTV of 25.7 per cent and 6.6 per cent, respectively, while local retail investors recorded an ADTV increase of 8.9 per cent.