It was a rather mixed trading week with a negative bias among foreign investors as they net sold for four out of the five trading days. However, MIDF said the net buying of RM63 million on Thursday cushioned the net selling for the rest of the week.
It was the second consecutive week of net foreign inflows last week, which grew to RM18.8m from RM11.5m the week prior.
Foreign investors net sold -RM150K on Monday, -RM14.9m on Tuesday, -RM24.4m on Wednesday and -RM4.7m on Friday. Thursday was the only day with net inflows, which saw the bulk of foreign funds flowing into blue chips namely Petronas Gas, QL Resources and Public Bank.
Sentiments remain healthy, lifted by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s recent visit to China, which secured the commitment of RM170.07b of Chinese investments into several industries in Malaysia and also RM2.44b of potential exports to China.
Top three sectors that saw net foreign inflows last week were Consumer Products & Services (RM39.1m), Utilities (RM24.2m) and Energy (RM18.2m), while the top three sectors that saw net foreign outflows were Financial Services (-RM39.1m), Healthcare (-RM30.2m) and Technology (-RM16.9m). Year-to-date, foreigners have net sold Malaysian equities for nine out of 14 weeks, totalling -RM1.86b.
Institutional investors returned as net buyers with a total of RM50.1m, after briefly turning net sellers at -RM3.9m the week before. They net sold -RM71.0m on Thursday but were net buyers for the rest of the week. Year-to-date, institutional investors have been net buyers for 10 out of 14 weeks with a total of RM1.82b.
Local retailers net sold for the second consecutive week at -RM69.0m. They net bought RM8.0m on Thursday but were net sellers for the rest of the week. They have net bought for seven out of 14 weeks this year, with a total of RM22.9m.
In terms of participation, there was a decline in average daily trading volume (ADTV) among local retailers by -5.8%, local institutions by -3.2% and foreign investors by -18.8%.
