In the five days to May 12, foreign investors sold US$46.4 million of their interests on Bursa Malaysia, according to MIDF Research, extending the outflow of foreign funds to its fourth week.
Indonesia, the biggest loser of the week, saw US$139.6 million leave its market, and Thailand was next, posting a net foreign outflow of US$138.3 million. This was also its fourth consecutive week of losses.
“The Philippines recorded a net foreign outflow of US$12.4 million and Vietnam posted a net foreign outflow at US$6.2 million for the second consecutive week,” MIDF said in a note today.
Malaysia actually began the week well, seeing net foreign inflows of RM9.5 million on Monday and another RM81.8 million on Tuesday.
However, the tide turned on Wednesday and by Friday, the outflow had reached RM137.6 million.
MIDF noted that foreign funds had been net sellers of Malaysian equities for 13 out of 19 weeks this year with outflows amounting to RM2.18 billion.
“The top three sectors that saw net foreign inflows were telecommunications and media (RM62.9 million), utilities (RM26.4 million) and plantation (RM12.1 million).
“The top three sectors that saw net foreign outflows were financial services (RM84.5 million), industrial products and services (RM32.6 million) and construction (RM17.6 million),” it said.
MIDF noted that local institutions remained net buyers for the third consecutive week at RM49.9 million last week, with every trading day being a net buying day by local institutions except for Tuesday, which saw an outflow of RM63.9 million.
“The bulk of the inflows came in on Friday at RM72.3 million when Bank Negara Malaysia announced a better-than-expected expansion of the domestic economy of 5.6% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023,” it noted.
The research house also said local institutions had been net buyers for 14 out of 19 weeks this year with inflows totalling RM2.09 billion.
“Local retailers remained net sellers for the second consecutive week at RM3.6 million with every trading day a net selling day except for Wednesday (RM15.3 million) and Thursday (RM25.4 million),” it noted.
However, local retailers had been net buyers of domestic equities for nine out of 19 weeks this year with total inflows of RM93.4 million.
In terms of participation, there was an increase in average daily trading volume among local retailers by 5.3%, local institutions by 16.2%, and foreign investors by 30.6%.