KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign funds continued to flow into Malaysia for the second consecutive week as they net bought RM152.9 million last week.
According to MIDF Research, international funds were net sellers only on Tuesday at RM14 million just before the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, but this was easily negated by the net inflows recorded in the four other trading days.
The strongest net inflow from foreign funds was on Thursday at RM50.5 million, which was during and after the FOMC meeting.
MIDF Research said international funds has been net buyers for 19 out of the 30 weeks of 2022, with a total net inflow of RM6.27 billion.
"It should be noted that the end of the month of July saw foreign funds posting a net inflow which was a reversal from the net outflow seen in June.
"The net inflow for the month of July was RM182.2 million," it said in a note today.
Local institutions maintained their net selling stance for the third week, coming at RM70.7 million.
They were net sellers of RM62.8 million on Thursday, RM36.9 million on Wednesday and RM11.5 million on Monday.
These were softened by net buys on Tuesday and Friday at RM15.2 million and RM25.4 million respectively.
Local retailers were still net sellers last week, at a rate of RM82.3 million.
They were net sellers every day of the week, with the heaviest outflow on Friday at -RM44.3 million and the lowest on Tuesday at -RM1.2 million.
Local retailers have been net selling for eight consecutive trading days.
MIDF Research said local institutions were net sellers for 23 out of 30 weeks, with a total net outflow of -RM7.96 million.
Local retailers have been net buyers for 19 out of 30 weeks of 2022.
Year-to-date, they have been net buyers at RM1.7 billion.
Meanwhile, MIDF Research said the top three sectors which saw net inflows by foreign investors were financial services, utilities and consumer products and services.
These came in at RM222.8 million, RM49.8 million and RM25.1 million respectively.
The top three sectors with net outflows were industrial products and services at -RM86.0 million, technology at -RM59.2 million and plantation at -RM12.5 million.
In terms of participation, there was an increase in average daily trade value (ADTV) among retail and institutional investors by 10.98 per cent and 17.17 per cent respectively.
There was a decline in ADTV among foreign investors by 8.81 per cent.