RM38m outflow from Bursa last week
PETALING JAYA: After four successive weeks of inflow, Bursa Malaysia saw the first foreign outflow last week, according to MIDF Research.
In its fund flow report today, the research house said for the week ended Dec 22, 2017 the net amount sold off by foreign investors was RM38.2 million, based on transactions in the open market, which excluded off market deals.
However, it said that last week’s net attrition was substantially lower compared with the net amount sold in the week ended Nov 17, recorded at RM297.1 million.
MIDF noted that international investors were net sellers in two out of five trading days, with Tuesday recording the greatest amount of RM143.9 million since Nov 16. It is noteworthy that the foreign net selling on Tuesday was in conformity with other Asian markets namely Thailand, the Philippines, India and Taiwan.
“On the next day, the global market saw an improvement with net buying by foreign investors following the passing of the new US tax bill. However, the mild recovery was short-lived as net selling occured on Thursday but on a reduced level far below RM100 million net,” it noted.
Due to light foreign net selling last week, the research house said the cumulative year to date inflow slightly decreased to RM10.16 billion from RM10.2 billion. It said so far out of 51 weeks, there has been only 17 weeks of foreign selling, a figure that is still better compared with 2016, which was over 20 weeks.
Foreign participation dipped substantially last week as the foreign average daily trade (ADTV) eased 48% to RM733.5 million. Meanwhile, the retail ADTV staged a slight recovery, increasing 3.4% to RM934.6 million.