Foreign investors in strong comeback last week

PETALING JAYA: Foreign investors made a relatively strong return to Malaysian equity last week, following three weeks of hesitation, said MIDF Research.
“Based on preliminary data from Bursa which excluded off-market trades, foreign investors bought RM297.2 million net of equity listed on Bursa in four days of trading last week. It was the second highest weekly haul in 20 weeks,” it said in its fund flow report yesterday.
Last week, foreign investors were net buyers in three out of four trading days, with strong foreign buying of Malaysian equity on Monday amounting to RM206.3 million net.
“It was only the second time this year that the figure had exceeded RM200 million, and the reported inflow was even higher than that recorded in Korea, Thailand and Indonesia,” said MIDF Research.
So far this year, foreign investors have mopped up RM612.9 million worth of local equity. Foreigners were net buyers on Bursa in January for the first time in five months and February looks promising to be the second straight month of foreign buying.
MIDF Research noted that foreign participation eased last week, after surging the week before.
“Foreign average daily trade value (ADTV) retreated 10.3% to RM900 million, still healthy in view of the market closure on Thursday. More importantly, foreign ADTV surged to RM1.7 billion on Friday, only the third time this year that it had exceeded RM1 billion. It coincided with the 10.4pt increase in the KLCI, as the index broke 1,700 points intraday,” it said.
However, the retail market is still below the healthy zone despite the 23% jump in ADTV to RM696 million last week.
“For a healthy retail participation, the ADTV should be closer to RM1 billion. In 2013, the ADTV was RM910 million,” it said.