Philippines records highest weekly foreign outflow in ASEAN, Malaysia sees marginal improvement - MIDF

"This is (Philippines') sixth consecutive week of net foreign outflows. It posted its biggest trade deficit in five months at US$5.7 billion while total trade remained in contraction for the second straight month at 2.4 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in January 2023.

"Exports plunged 13.5 per cent y-o-y, its deepest contraction in 32 months while imports grew 3.9 per cent y-o-y. The decline in exports was due to continued weaknesses in oversea sales of agro, forest, and manufactured products, among others," it said.

Back home, MIDF Research said the weekly net outflow of foreign funds from the Malaysian equity market reduced slightly by 3.8 per cent to RM536 million last week versus RM556.9 million recorded in the week before.

As sentiments remained weak due to the US banking sector challenges, it said foreign funds recorded net selling every day of the week, with the highest amount recorded on Tuesday at RM251.3 million, followed by RM99.7 million on Thursday and RM90.3 million on Friday.

"Foreign investors have been net sellers for 13 trading days since March 1. They have net sold RM1.78 billion year-to-date," it noted.

According to the research firm, the sectors that saw net foreign inflows were construction (RM67.9 million), technology (RM13.2 million), and transportation and logistics (RM7.8 million), while sectors that saw netforeign outflows were financial services (RM359.5 million), among others.

MIDF Research said local institutions continued to support domestic equities, net buying for the third consecutive week.

"They net bought RM565.7 million, the highest weekly amount in 2023 and the highest since the week ended Dec 9, 2022. Local institutions were net buyers every day, the strongest seen on Friday at RM187.7 million.

"As opposed to foreign investors, they have been net buyers every day since March 1. They have net bought RM1.76 billion of equities, with eight out of 11 weeks net buying," it noted.

In terms of participation, the research firm said there was an increase in average daily trading volume (ADTV) among local retailers by 18.4 per cent, local institutions by 40.4 per cent, and foreign investors by 51.0 per cent.