Foreign selling on Bursa eases sharply

PETALING JAYA: Selling levels on Bursa Malaysia dropped from its highest level recorded so far this year at RM967.3 million in the preceding week, to RM82.9 million net last week in the open market, which excluded off-market deals.
MIDF Research said for the third week in a row, global funds have remained net sellers, albeit at a weaker pace.
It said foreign investors were net sellers on every single day of the week except on Tuesday as foreigners bought RM82.2 million net, which coincided with the FBM KLCI’s 0.28% advance to 1,761 points after four days of staying below the 1,760 level.
“Interestingly, local institutions cashed in gains the same day, selling off RM60 million net, ending their 11-day buying binge. Meanwhile, foreign selling was the highest on Monday with a net outflow of RM79.2 million, which was half of the amount sold in the preceding week’s Friday. The tapered outflows on Monday snapped FBM KLCI’s 10-straight days of losses,” MIDF said in its fund flow report today.
It added that overall, the slowdown in foreign sales of Malaysian stocks last week could be attributable to the spillover effect from record gains in Wall Street as President Trump’s tax plan makes progress.
The cumulative net inflow thus far this year into shares listed on Bursa was slightly pulled down to RM9.53 billion from RM9.61 billion the week before. Although the number of weekly attritions has reached 11, the year-to-date inflow still offsets 30% of the net outflows recorded in the past three years.
Foreign participation took a beating last week as other key Asian markets were shut for the week. The foreign average daily trade value (ADTV) took a huge 40% plunge from RM1.26 billion down to RM757m, the lowest in six weeks.
The retail market also tracked the decline in foreign participation as retail ADTV dropped by 6.2% from RM921 million to RM864 million.