KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign investors continued to be net sellers last week with a net outflow of RM81.9 million compared with a net outflow of RM59.9 million in the previous week, said MIDF Research.
It said the net selling started on Nov 21 which saw the highest net outflow for the week at RM167.69 million and the trend continued with net outflows of RM155.95 million on Nov 22, RM56.57 million on Nov 23 and RM42.49 million on Nov 25.
“The net outflow trend could be due to the fact that Malaysia’s 15th general election produced a hung parliament for the first time in its history.
“There was no coalition that achieved the required 112 seats for a simple majority. However, this was resolved on Thursday (Nov 24),“ the research house said in a note on Nov 29.
As a result of the resolution to the political impasse, foreigners changed their stance to register net buying of RM340.8 million, the only net inflow of the week.
Nevertheless, this was not enough to reverse the net selling done in the prior three days as Friday (Nov 25) saw the net selling deepen, said MIDF Research.
Meanwhile, local institutions were also net sellers last week with a total net outflow of RM4.2 million, the bulk of which was recorded on Nov 24 at RM158.69 million and Nov 21 at RM21.65 million.
“For the other days, the local institutions were net buyers at RM64.96 million, RM46.87 million and RM64.31 million worth of equities on Tuesday (Nov 22), Wednesday (Nov 23) and Thursday (Nov 24) respectively,“ it added.
MIDF Research said local retailers continued to be net buyers last week with a total weekly net inflow of RM85.91 million as they started off the week with net buying worth RM189.35 million.
“They then turned into net sellers on Thursday (Nov 24) and Friday (Nov 25) with net outflows of RM182.12 million and RM22.02 million respectively,“ it said.
Year-to-date, MIDF Research said international funds have been net buyers with a total net inflow of RM5.83 billion, while local institutions were net sellers at RM8.99 billion, and local retailers were net buyers at RM2.17 billion.
In terms of participation, there was an improvement in terms of average daily trade value across retail investors (67.37%), institutional investors (62.23%), and foreign investors (32.94%). - Bernama
