PETALING JAYA: Foreign investors sold RM276.6 million net of local equities last week, compared to RM770.8 million net sold the week before.
“Offshore investors continued to reduce their exposure on stocks listed on Bursa for the fourth consecutive week albeit at a slower pace,” MIDF Research said in its fund flow report.
It said Bursa had a slightly rough start to the week as foreign investors disposed of RM65.5 million net last Monday. Sentiment was dampened as Chinese officials appeared to be reluctant to agree to a broad trade deal with the US ahead of negotiations on Thursday.
The level of foreign net selling on Tuesday and Wednesday almost doubled to reach RM113.5 million net and RM112.7 million net, respectively. The tensions between the US and China grew further as US President Donald Trump blacklisted eight Chinese technology giants, citing the companies’ involvement in China’s crackdown on Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
Nevertheless, the momentum of foreign net outflows slowed down on Thursday as international funds only sold RM40.6 million net of local equities. The decline in the level of foreign net selling was fuelled by the possibility that the US and China may reach a partial trade deal.
Foreign investors then took a breather from selling activities as they snapped up RM55.6 million net of local equities, lifting the local bourse up by 0.3% to settle at 1,556.8 points. This is the first foreign net inflow in 11 trading days.
“Besides Trump’s comments that the first day of high-level trade negotiations went very well, optimism stemmed from the tabling of Malaysia’s Budget 2020 in parliament.”
On a year-to-date basis, international funds have taken out RM8.88 billion worth of local equities from Bursa, making up 76.0% of last year’s foreign outflow of RM11.69 million.
In terms of participation, foreign investors was the only group that experienced a weekly drop in the average daily traded value of 6% to go remain below the RM1.0 billion mark for the third week running.
