PETALING JAYA: International funds continued to reduce their exposure in equities on Bursa Malaysia for the third consecutive week, as it sold a whopping RM1.19 billion net of local equities last week.
This is slightly lower from RM1.26 billion offloaded in the preceding week, according to MIDF Research.
The research house highlighted that the local bourse welcomed March in the red, as it declined 1.1% to settle at 1,466.9 points on Monday with the largest net outflow of the week at RM329 million.
“Investors continued to fear the negative impact of the Covid-19 as the global death toll reached 3,057 while confirmed cases totalled 89,083 as of last Monday,” it said in a report.
The following day saw the level of foreign net selling decelerated to RM257 million, which coincides with the 0.8% rebound in the local stock barometer. Much of the positivity was attributable to the overnight policy rate (OPR) cut of another 25 basis points to 2.5% by Bank Negara Malaysia to mitigate effects of the Covid-19 outbreak.
On Wednesday, foreign fund outflow moderated to RM119.4 million following the emergency rate cut of 50 basis points by the US Fed.
“However, foreign net outflow increased to RM174.2m on Thursday in contrast to its peers namely Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia which had foreign funds entering their markets,” said the research house.
Friday saw the foreign selloff at a higher pace of RM309.3 million net as Covid-19 fears lingers, as Italy reported 41 new deaths on the day before, the highest single day fatalities to date.
MIDF research said Malaysia’s year-to-date foreign net outflow stands at RM3.3 billion, the third smallest outflow in comparison to the other six Asian peers.
In terms of participation, the average daily traded value of foreign investors recorded the smallest drop of 21.2% for the week but was still at a healthy level of RM1.52 billion.
