Foreigners sold RM63m last week

PETALING JAYA: Foreign investors sold off RM63.1 million last week, in line with the weekly outflow seen by regional peers including Korea, Indonesia and Taiwan, said MIDF Research.
“After four weeks of meandering, foreign funds took a breather as ratcheting political tensions hurt their risk appetite,” it said in its fund flow report yesterday.
Foreign funds were net sellers in three out of five trading days last week, with foreign selling peaking on Friday as foreigners disposed of RM93.5 million net, the highest in a day since July 5.
It said the attrition on Friday coincided with the KLCI dropping below the 1,770 points at close and the ringgit hitting a one-month low.
Note that the KLCI declined by 0.43% for the week to settle at 1,767 points, ending its three-week winning streak while the ringgit followed suit, depreciating 0.40% against the dollar to USD/RM 4.2952.
“So far, foreign investors have only been net sellers for six weeks this year compared with last year’s 27 weeks. Despite last week’s foreign withdrawal, the cumulative year-to-date inflow was slightly unchanged at RM10.7 billion net compared with RM10.8 billion net in the preceding week,” said MIDF Research.
Foreign participation rate turned sluggish as the foreign average daily trade value (ADTV) declined 31% from RM895 million in the prior week to RM615 million, the lowest since the first week of 2017.
Retail participation remained vibrant, as ADTV remained above the RM800 million mark, decreasing by 0.5% only from RM887 million to above RM882 million last week.