KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia's FBM KLCI may have been Southeast Asia's third best-performing index in 2024 but on a month-on-month (MoM) basis, it is the best among the region's biggest four indices in December.
FBM KLCI rose 3.0 per cent MoM to 1,642 points in December, outperforming the MSCI All Country Asia ex-Japan Index by 2.9 percentage points (pp), according to CIMB Securities.
"Among the MIST (Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand) market indices, the FBM KLCI was the best-performing index, rising by 3.0 per cent MoM in December.
"Singapore's Straits Times Index was the second-best performer MoM, rising by 1.3 per cent, while Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index ranked as the third-best performer with a loss of 0.5 per cent.
"Thailand's SET was the worst performer among the MIST markets, declining by 1.9 per cent MoM.
For 2024, the STI emerged as the top performer among MIST markets, with a gain of 16.9 per cent year-on-year (YoY) followed by FBM KLCI (+12.9 per cent YoY) and the SET (-1.1 per cent YoY).
The JCI was the weakest performer among the MIST market indices, falling by 2.7 per cent YoY.
FBM KLCI outperformed the MSCI AC Asia ex-Japan Index by 3.2pp in 2024.
Meanwhile, CIMB Securities said foreign shareholding in the local bourse dipped to 19.7 per cent in December 2024
Foreign investors continued to be net sellers of Malaysian equities for the third straight month in December with a net sell value of RM2.9 billion.
This brought their 2024 total net sell value to RM4.2 billion, raising cumulative net foreign outflow since 2010 to RM38.5 billion.
"Consequently, foreign shareholding in the Malaysian equity market (based on market capitalisation) fell 0.4pp to 19.7 per cent in December 2024," the firm said.