Foreign investors sell RM246.32 mln stocks last week

In a note today, the research house said the expectation of a positive foreign inflow on the back of an expansionary budget did not materialise as the selling momentum on Tuesday outweighed the net inflow on Thursday and Friday.

As the market reopened on Monday last week, foreign investors bought RM3.53 million net of local equities, with retailers and local institutions as net buyers and net sellers at RM39.52 million and -RM43.05 million, respectively.

“However, this was reversed mid-week, as the largest outflow of the week on Tuesday set the tone of the cumulative flow at RM332.97 million and continued on Wednesday at RM7.49 million. Meanwhile, the largest inflow was on Thursday at RM87.25 million,” it said.

So far in 2020, foreign investors net selling has reached RM23.13 billion worth of equities on Bursa Malaysia.

“In comparison to another three Southeast Asian markets that we tracked last week; Thailand recorded the most foreign net inflow, while Malaysia experienced the biggest outflow,” said MIDF Research.

In terms of retail participation, last week saw retailers as net buyers with RM129.08 million worth of equities last week, while local institutions net bought RM117.24 million during the same period.

“Retailers as net buyers on Bursa Malaysia continued its streak to the fifth week since early November with a rebound from two weeks ago on a more cautionary behaviour.

“We may expect retailers buying momentum to continue next week on the tailwind of positive development on vaccines front,” MIDF said.

Net buying amounted to RM11.82 billion came from retailers thus far in 2020, while institutions bought to the tune of RM10.94 billion.

In terms of participation, the retail investors recorded a weekly increase of 49.17 per cent in average daily trade value (ADTV) while foreign investors experienced an increase of ADTV of 83.68 per cent and local institutions at ADTV of 61.11 per cent.