PETALING JAYA: Foreign funds mopped up RM455.1 million net of local equities last week, a slight increase from the preceding week.
“Offshore investors continued to enter Bursa for the third uninterrupted week, the longest weekly foreign net buying streak seen since April 2018,“ MIDF Research said in its weekly fund flow report today.
As the local bourse reopened after the Thaipusam holiday, global investors rushed to buy local equities at a tune of RM158 million net, marking the third straight day of net inflows standing above RM100 million.
It was also notable that the FBM KLCI closed above 1,700 points for the first time since late November 2018, bucking the trend of other major Asian markets which dipped such as South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan.
The momentum of foreign net inflows on Wednesday slowed down to RM29.5 million as global growth worries were revived at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Risk sentiment was dampened further by the rumour on the cancellation of the meeting between US president Donald Trump’s administration and Chinese trade officials due to the lack of progress on forced technology transfers but was refuted by US presidential adviser Larry Kudlow.
Nonetheless, the level of foreign net buying reached above the RM100 million mark at RM105.6 million on Thursday as positive corporate results from the US soothed investors nerves that the US economic recovery was still on track.
Foreign net inflows gained momentum to hit RM162.1 million on Friday as the overnight rally in US chipmakers outweighed comments from US Commerce Secretary stating that the US and China are still far away from achieving a resolution on trade.
The participation rate of foreign investors was stronger last week, indicated by the average daily traded value (ADTV) which jumped by more than 30% for the week to reach RM1.3 billion, the highest in eight weeks.
