That was more than three times the net amount they sold the week before, according to MIDF Research.
After accounting for a net inflow of foreign funds of RM85.4 million last Tuesday, the only day of the week when they reversed the fund flow, the foreigners have already sold RM142.9 million of Malaysian equities so far this year.
In the week ended Jan 20, the heaviest selling came on Wednesday, the day before Bank Negara Malaysia made the unexpected decision to keep the overnight policy rate (OPR) at 2.75%.
Economists now expect the central bank to raise the rate by another 25 basis points to 3% at its next monetary policy committee meeting in March given that core inflation remains elevated.
MIDF Research noted that the three sectors that saw net inflows of foreign funds last week were energy (RM31.0 million), healthcare (RM30.5 million) and technology (RM21.3 million), while the three sectors that saw the highest net foreign outflows were financial services (down RM272.4 million), industrial products and services (down RM9.9 million) and transportation and logistics (down RM2.4 million).
It said local institutions remained net buyers for the second consecutive week, having picked up RM391.6 million worth of equities last week. Every trading day was a net buying day except for Tuesday which saw the local institutions offloading RM64.3 million worth of equities.
“Local institutions are net buyers of domestic equities so far this year with a total purchase of RM606.5 million worth of stocks,” it said.
As for local retailers, MIDF Research said they sold a net amount of RM223.1 million last week, slightly lower than the RM292.6 million recorded during the week ended Jan 13.
“Every trading day was a net selling day for the local retailers last week with the heaviest net selling recorded on Friday at RM79.1 million. This could be due to profit-taking ahead of the Chinese New Year holidays,” it said.
It pointed out that year-to-date, local retailers have sold RM463.6 million of Malaysian equities.
In terms of participation, the research house added that there was a decrease in average daily trading volume among local retailers (down 10.5%), local institutions (down 10.3%) and foreign investors (down 11.9%).