KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign investors continued hitting the buy button for equities listed on Bursa Malaysia.
They had bought RM417.3 million net of local equities last week, the highest inflow recorded since September 2018, according to MIDF Research.
Foreign investors turned buyers after a short selling mode on Monday, ending the week with net positive, it added.
“Based on the preliminary data from Bursa, international funds acquired RM417.3 million net of local equities last week, about 16 times the net inflow in the previous week.
“Foreign investors turned buyers starting in the last two weeks, after nine consecutive weeks as sellers,” MIDF Research said in its weekly fund flow report.
It said they had first bought RM51.7 million net on Tuesday followed by a net total of RM378.0 million for the rest of the week. The net buying quantum peaked on Friday, on renewed trade optimism.
It was reported that the US was considering measures to roll back tariffs on Chinese products, which helped to offset the fears of a global economic slowdown after disappointing Chinese trade data.
Notably, Chinese exports and imports recorded a drop in December, stemmed from the trade war impact.
“So far in 2019, foreign funds bought RM424.5 million net or US$103.4 million net of local equities. In comparison to the other three Asean peers we monitor namely the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand, Malaysia has the lowest foreign net inflow on a year-to-date basis,” MIDF Research said.
Despite the inflows into Bursa, participation rate among the various group of investors recorded a decline across the board. Foreign average daily traded value (ADTV) dipped 20.7 per cent to settle below the RM1 billion level.
Retail market and local institutions ADVT dropped 14.9 per cent and 17.0 per cent respectively. Positively, retail market’s ADTV remained above its healthy level of RM800 million.
Public Bank Bhd registered the highest net money inflow of RM18.04 million last week followed by CIMB Group Holdings Bhd with an inflow of RM16.04 million. Tenaga Nasional Bhd ended the week with its share price closing 1.3 per cent lower at RM13.68, drifting from the FBM KLCI which advanced 0.53 per cent.
Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd recorded the highest net money outflow of RM13.32 milliom last week while Malayan Banking Bhd was the second largest money outflow with RM8.94 million. The latter’s share price outperformed the benchmark index with 1.06 per cent gain for the week.
Genting Bhd registered the third largest net money outflow at RM7.15 million.