Foreign buying on Bursa last week tops RM300m

PETALING JAYA: The net amount acquired by foreign investors last week amounted to RM324.7 million, only the eighth time this year weekly foreign buying levels exceeded RM300 million.
“International investors continued to make their way to accumulate stocks listed on Bursa last week albeit at a rather similar pace compared to the week before,” MIDF Research said in its fund flow report today.
Foreign buying activity occurred on four out of five trading days last week. Global investors made a strong start to the week as they mopped up RM188.3 million net of local equities on Monday. This was also the largest daily amount acquired during the week, coinciding with the KLCI adding 12.7 points as US President Donald Trump’s tweet expressed optimism on US-China relations, which softened fears of a trade war. Foreign inflows slightly slowed down the next day to a tune of RM131 million net.
Wednesday then saw a decent net outflow of RM27.4 million amid escalated tensions over Syria, which overshadowed the news of volume across Bursa exceeding 4 billion shares amid the timing of the 14th General Election which was made public on the day before.
Nonetheless, foreign investors returned to Bursa on Thursday and Friday but at a marginal level of RM17.5 million and RM15.3 million net, respectively.
“It was noteworthy that Malaysia and Korea were the only markets among the seven Asian exchanges that we track, to experience foreign inflows on Thursday and Friday.”
On a year-to-date basis, foreigners have so far accumulated RM2.85 billion net of local equities.
Meanwhile, foreign investors have been net buyers in 12 out of the 15 weeks in 2018 compared to 13 weeks during the same period in 2017.
Both foreign and retail participation remained robust as both of their average daily trade value stood above the RM1 billion level last week.