Fears of a credit default in the United States were alleviated following an agreement between the House of Representatives and the Senate to lift the debt ceiling for two years. Major benchmarks continued to advance, especially on Thursday and Friday after a strong jobs report from the US.
Local institutional investors turned net buyers on Bursa Malaysia last week amounting to RM372.9 million, said MIDF Research.
“Year to date, they have been net buyers of domestic equities for 16 out of 22 weeks, with a total net inflow of RM2.79 billion,” it said in a weekly fund flow report.
Similarly, local retailers remained net buyers for the second consecutive week after net buying RM133.6 million last week.
“Every trading day was a net buying day except on Friday, with a net sale of RM9.6 million.
“Year to date, local retailers had been net buyers for 11 out of 22 weeks, the total net buying year-to-date amounting to RM173.5 million,” said MIDF Research.
Meanwhile, foreign investors continued to be net sellers on Bursa Malaysia for the seventh consecutive week last week, with net foreign outflows widening to RM506.5 million from RM58.7 million in the previous week, said MIDF Research.
It said foreign investors had been net sellers for 16 out of 22 weeks this year, with a total net foreign outflow of RM2.96 billion.
The research house said foreign investors were net sellers every day last week, with Wednesday witnessing the heaviest net selling for the week at RM199.3 million.
“The top three counters that foreign investors net sold on this day were RHB Bank (RM45.8 million), Hap Seng Consolidated (RM31.9 million) and Public Bank (RM30.7 million),” it said.
The top three sectors that saw net foreign inflows were technology (RM47.3 million), telecommunication and media (RM27.4 million), as well as transportation and logistics (RM24.7 million).
While the top three sectors of net foreign outflows were financial services (RM181.6 million), consumer products and services (RM161.5 million) and industrial products and services (RM137.4 million), according to MIDF Research.
