THE Malaysian stock exchange continued to benefit from the stream of net inflows as foreign investors continued to reposition their funds ahead of the Federal Reserve’s expected easing this week.

For the week ended Sept 13, Bursa Malaysia saw foreign investors net buying for the fifth straight week. They net bought RM217.6 million last week, according to funds tracked by the MIDF Research.

At the same time, it noted that local institutions snapped their four consecutive weeks of net selling after net buying RM3.5 million last week.

Asia wide, the report said foreign investors net sold for the second consecutive week, though at a much-moderated amount compared to the week before.

“The trend of how foreign investors have been moving their funds have been similar over the past three weeks. They have been net selling equities in Taiwan, South Korea and Vietnam and channelled their funds into India and Southeast Asia ahead of the US Fed’s expected easing this Thursday,” it said.

It said leading the net foreign fund inflows last week was India at US$2.01 billion, its fourth consecutive week of net inflow.

Among the main beneficiaries of the continuous foreign inflows into Southeast Asia was Indonesia, which has recorded its 12th consecutive week of net inflows at US$1.33 billion, the highest weekly amount in over two years, it added. – TMR