KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 — Net selling of local equities by foreign investors moderated to just RM20.79 million last week from RM187.79 million in the previous week, while local institutional investors continued their buying stance.
In a note today, MIDF Research said the top three sectors that saw net foreign inflows last week were telecommunications and media (RM25.2 million), transportation and logistics (RM11.1 million) and energy (RM10.9 million).
Sectors with the most outflows were financial services (-RM39.8 million), industrial products and services (-RM17.3 million) and healthcare (-RM15.9 million), it said.
The research house said local institutional investors maintained their net buying stance with a total of RM53.2 million during the shortened trading week of only three days due to the Labour Day and Wesak Day holidays.
“Year-to-date, they have been net buyers for 13 out of 18 weeks with a total of RM2.04 billion,” it said.
Meanwhile, local retailers net sold RM32.4 million last week after two weeks of net buying.
“They have net bought for nine out of 18 weeks this year, with a total of RM96.93 million,” it added.
In the Asian market, MIDF Research said foreign investors turned net buyers of Asian equities again after two brief weeks of net selling, but India and South Korea were the only markets to record net inflows last week.
“Based on the provisional aggregate data for the eight exchanges that we track, investors classified as ‘foreigners’ net bought US$855.9 million (US$1=RM4.44) worth of Asian equities during the shortened trading week in conjunction with the Labour Day holiday on Monday,” it said.
The research house said most of the funds flowed into India, as foreign investors net bought US$1.42 billion.
“This was the highest weekly net inflow this year and since the week ended December 12, 2022.
“The continuous optimism on India was further enhanced last week when the government announced a record high goods and services tax collection, up 12 per cent year-on-year in April 2023 to a record high of US$22.88 billion,” it said.
However, year-to-date, the amount of foreign investments in India is still at a net outflow of US$358.75 million.
MIDF Research said South Korea was the only other country with a net inflow last week, at US$102.1 million while Taiwan recorded the highest net foreign fund outflow for the third consecutive week at a rate of US$442.1 million.
— Bernama
