FOREIGN funds continued to leave Bursa Malaysia for the fourth consecutive week, says MIDF Research.

In its fund flow report today, it said that foreigners net sold RM107.1 million  last week which was lower compared to the net selling amount of RM536 million  the week before.

It said that the highest net selling occurred on Monday at RM88.5 million, followed by RM59.43 million on Thursday.

“All other days showed net inflows with a sum of RM40.8 million,” it said.

MIDF Research said foreign investors have been net sellers for the 15 trading days, since March 1, 2023.

To-date, it is said that foreign investors have net sold RM1.89 billion.

“Out of the 12 weeks so far this year, they have been net sellers for nine weeks,” it said.

The top three sectors that saw net foreign inflows were healthcare (RM90 million), transportation and logistics (RM24.4 million) and construction (RM15.9 million). Meanwhile, the bottom three sectors that saw net foreign outflows were industrial products and services (RM70.5 million), utilities (RM50.5 million) and consumer products and services (RM49.2 million).

Meanwhile, it noted that local institutions continued to support domestic equities, net buying for the fourth consecutive week.

“They net bought RM13.5 million last week, lower in comparison to the highest weekly amount in 2023 and the highest since the week ended Dec 9, 2022 – last week of RM566.7 million,” it said.

Similar to foreign funds, MIDF Research said local institutions also showed a mixed bag of investment last week with the strongest inflows seen on Monday at RM56.8 million, and largest outflow seen on Friday at RM77.90 million.

As opposed to foreign investors, local institutions have been net buyers every day since March 1 except for March 22 and March 24.

“They have net bought RM1.78 billion of equities, with 9 out of 12 weeks net buying,” said MIDF Research, adding that local retailers turned net buyers at a rate of RM84.7 million last week.

Likewise, it said that the foreign funds and local institutions showed three days of net buying and two days of net selling last week.

It said that the strongest net inflow was recorded on Friday at RM65.2 million while the largest net outflows happened on Tuesday at RM21.1 million.

“Year-to-date, they have net bought RM99.5 million of equities, with seven out of 12 weeks of net buying,” it said.

In terms of participation, MIDF Research said there was a drop in average daily trading volume among local retailers by 16.3%, local institutions by 25.3% and foreign investors by 41.1%. – TMR / pic TMR File