Foreign selling on Bursa below RM1b last week

PETALING JAYA: The net amount offloaded by foreign investors last week went below the RM1 billion level to RM903.1 million net against RM1.27 billion in the prior week.
“International investors continued to reduce their exposure in stocks listed on Bursa for the sixth consecutive week but at a tapered pace,” MIDF Research said in its weekly fund flow report today.
As of last Friday, the selling streak has extended to 24 days, the longest since the 29-day binge in early January to mid-February 2014.
A total of RM104.2 million net of shares were sold by foreigners on Monday, which was below the average amount of RM300 million net sold in the week before. Foreign attrition on Tuesday narrowed down further to RM87.6 million net following the technology rally on Wall Street overnight.
Despite the FBM KLCI surging 1.25% to 1,777 points on Wednesday, foreign selling inched higher to RM134.2 million net on the same day amid the announcement of populist policies by Italy’s new government in the wake of the European central bank plan to end its quantitative easing programme.
The level of attrition thereafter swelled to be near the RM300 million net level on Thursday and Friday as investors geared up for the G7 meeting where a risk of trade war was renewed with France and Canada threatening retaliatory duties in response to US levies.
MIDF Research said last week’s abating outflows brought the year-to-date outflow from Malaysia to US$757.6 million net or RM3.02 billion net.
This is still the lowest among its Asean peers namely Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia.
Foreign participation remained healthy as the foreign average daily trade value remained above the RM1 billion mark at RM1.64 billion.
The retail market and local funds, meanwhile, saw buying activity extending to its fourth and sixth week respectively.