KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 15): The momentum of foreign tide into Bursa accelerated last week, and the net amount purchased by foreign investors more than doubled to RM728.1 million from RM301.8 million the week prior, marking the sixth consecutive week of foreign net buying, according to MIDF Research.

In a note today, MIDF Research head Zulkifli Hamzah said the estimates are based on transactions in the open market which excluded off-market deals.

He said foreigners were net buyers on every single day last week.

"As of last Friday, they have been net buying in 9 out of 11 straight days.

"We note that the buying momentum from the preceding week was carried forward as Bursa commenced on Monday, with foreign investors on net loaded up RM206.2 million.

"Foreigners continued to buy on Tuesday at RM163.9 million net," he said.

Zulkifli said the buying momentum persisted into Wednesday and Thursday at a decelerating pace of RM125.3 million and RM86.2 million net, respectively.

The buying pace, however, improved on Friday at RM146.5 million net, as sentiments were arguably lifted by the stronger-than-expected June industrial production data, as well as the 2Q GDP growth rate which delivered market expectations at 4% year-on-year, he said.

Zulkifli said the cumulative net foreign inflow thus far this year into shares listed on Bursa is approaching the RM2 billion level.

As of last Friday, he said, the year-to-date cumulative flow into Bursa increased to an estimated RM1.99 billion from RM1.26 billion the week prior.

"In retrospect, foreigners had offloaded RM19.5 billion and RM6.9 billion in 2015 and 2014 respectively," he said.

Meanwhile, Zulkifli said foreign participation rate continued to demonstrate a sign of fatigue. It remained subdued at RM765.9 million, little changed from previous week's RM761.2 million.

The rate has been staying below the RM1 billion level for the ninth time in the past 10 straight weeks, according to Zulkifli.

He said local institution continued to sell for the sixth successive week by offloading RM646.3 million.

"Meanwhile, its participation rate remained decent at RM2.18 billion, down marginally from prior week's RM2.21 billion," he said.

Zulkifli said retail buyers turned net sellers last week. They trimmed down their holdings by RM81.8 million, after a net purchase of RM33.1 million in the preceding week.

Meanwhile, he said, their participation rate has improved further to RM659 million from RM605.5 million the week prior.