This was a major reversal from the last trading week of 2022 when they unloaded a net total of RM204.6 million.
The exchange was closed last Monday as a replacement holiday for New Year’s Day, which fell on Sunday.
MIDF Research has attributed the foreign inflows into Malaysia, as well as other Southeast Asian markets, to the positive sentiments from China’s reopening.
The foreign investors’ confidence in the Malaysian market was also lifted by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s assurance that any decision on interest rates was the sole prerogative of Bank Negara Malaysia.
“This came in response to questions directed by certain parties towards the central bank on setting the overnight policy rate,” the research house said in its Fund Flow Report for the week ended Jan 6, 2023.
It noted that foreign investors sold a net total of RM32.3 million and RM22.6 million worth of stocks on Tuesday and Wednesday before picking up RM86.6 million and RM40.6 million on Thursday and Friday respectively.
“The top three sectors which saw net inflows of funds from foreign investors last week were financial services at RM99.2 million, construction at RM11.1 million and energy at RM5.3 million,” the research firm said.
The three sectors that ended the week with net outflows were plantation at RM15.9 million, telecommunications and media at RM13.8 million and utilities at RM6.7 million.
On the other hand, local institutions turned net sellers for the week, unloading a total of RM124.4 million worth of shares.
They began the week by buying a net total of RM19.2 million worth of stocks on Tuesday, before selling from Wednesday to Friday at RM6.1 million, RM91.9 million and RM45.6 million.
Local retailers remained the most optimistic, buying every day to accumulate a net total of RM52.1 million for the week.
They bought RM13.1 million on Tuesday, RM28.7 million on Wednesday, RM5.3 million on Thursday and RM5 million on Friday.
In terms of participation, there was an increase in average daily trading volume among retail investors by 0.8% while there were declines among local institutions and foreign investors by 17.6% and 19.4% respectively.