Foreign selling returns to Bursa

PETALING JAYA: Foreign selling returned to Bursa last week, with international investors dumping RM297.1 million net of Malaysian equities, the highest weekly attrition recorded in seven weeks.
“Foreign selling returned to Bursa at a rather intensified level compared with the amount disposed in the past six weeks that did not exceed RM100 million net,” MIDF Research said in its fund flow report today.
Foreign buyers exactly matched foreign sellers on Monday and a bout of acquisition took place on Tuesday where foreign investors bought RM181.3 million net, the highest net inflow in a day in almost five months despite the weak China industrial output data that coincided with the 0.22% dip in the FBM KLCI.
“However, foreign investors were back in selling mode thereafter until the week ended with Thursday recording the highest amount sold at US$282.1 million (RM1.17 billion) net. The heavy foreign buying on Thursday saw the FBM KLCI close at an eight-month low of 1,718 points ahead of the House of Representatives’ vote for a tax cut bill,” it said.
It noted that market sentiment improved later on Friday following the central bank’s announcement of a strong Q3’17 gross domestic product growth of 6.2%, which led to a 0.21% rebound in the FBM KLCI.
“Foreign selling still occurred on the same day but on a reduced level below RM100 million net,” it added.
Following the intense foreign selling last week, the cumulative year-to-date inflow has substantially decreased to RM9 billion from RM9.31 billion in the week before but the year-to-date inflow still offsets about 31% of the total net outflow from 2014 to 2016.
Foreign participation improved as the foreign average daily trade value (ADTV) surged by 27% to RM1.13 billion after three weeks of staying below the RM1 billion mark.
In contrast, the retail ADTV decreased by 8% to settle below the RM1 billion level at RM957 million.