KUALA LUMPUR (May 15): Foreign investors kept their faith on Malaysian equity and continued to be net buyers for the 14th week, acquiring some RM576.6 million on Bursa Malaysia, according to MIDF Research.

In its weekly fund flow report today, the MIDF Research strategy team said Bursa benefited from the sizeable flow to South East Asian emerging markets last week, especially to Jakarta.

"For the third straight week, trading on Bursa was constricted to four days.

"Foreign buying was the highest on Thursday as global markets were buoyed by higher crude oil prices. The strong foreign buying momentum coincided with the rise in the KLCI by 8.83 points the same day," it said.

MIDF Research said foreign participation remained high on Bursa although it was slightly affected by market closure on Wednesday.

It said foreign average daily trade value declined by 2% to RM994.9 million, which is still a healthy level.

The research house said retailers were marginal net sellers last week but the overall retail market remained vibrant.

It explained that retail participation stayed above RM1 billion at RM1.18 billion, albeit 7.9% lower than the week before.

It said this is the ninth week this year retail participation has exceeded the RM1 billion mark.