KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign investor continued to be net buyer of Malaysian equities for the week ended on March 12 with an inflow of RM240.71 million, according to MIDF Research.
This was the second consecutive week that foreign investors were net buyers, the firm noted.
On a year-to-date basis, foreign net selling this year came in lower than the same period last year, MIDF Research said in its weekly fund flow report.
Net selling by foreigners was RM1.17 billion for 2021 thus far compared to RM5.21 billion net selling over the same period in 2020.
In comparison to other three Southeast Asian markets that MIDF Research tracked last week, Malaysia and Thailand were the countries that recorded net inflow last week.
MIDF Research said as the market reopened last Monday, foreign investors had sold RM62.93 million net of local equities, with retailers and local institutions both as net buyers to the tune of RM48.95 million and RM13.98 million respectively.
Foreign investors were net buyers every day except Monday and Friday during last week, it added.
This came amid the resumption of more economic activities and reopening of more sectors (i.e. entertainment industry) as well as decreasing number of new Covid-19 cases recorded in Malaysia.
As for the retailers, MIDF Research said they were net buyers every day last week except for Tuesday.
The largest net buying was recorded on Friday at RM74.73 million and the smallest net purchase was on Wednesday at RM4.80 million.
Local institutions were net sellers every day of the week, except on Monday and Friday.
"The mixed ending was recorded after five weeks pattern of net selling this year. Cumulative weekly outflow was to the tune of RM424.04 million," thr firm said.
The biggest net selling was on Wednesday at RM191.37 million while the smallest net selling was on Tuesday at RM110.93 million.
In terms of participation, the retail investors and local institutions recorded a weekly increase of 3.26 per cent and 6.92 per cent respectively in average daily trade value (ADTV), foreign investors decreased by 22.37 per cent in ADTV.