KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 26): Bursa Malaysia saw the first foreign outflow last week after four successive weeks of inflow, with some RM38.2 million Malaysian equity sold, according to MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd Research.

In his weekly fund flow report today, MIDF Research's Adam M Rahim said last week's net attrition was substantially lower in comparison to the net amount sold in the week ended Nov 17, recorded at RM297.1 million.

Adam said international investors were net sellers in two out of five trading days with Tuesday recording the greatest amount of RM143.9 million since Nov 16.

He said it was noteworthy that the foreign net selling on Tuesday was in conformity with other Asian markets, namely Thailand, Philipines, India and Taiwan.

"On the next day, the global market saw an improvement with net buying by foreign investors following the passing of the new US tax bill.

"However, the mild recovery was short-lived as net selling occurred on Thursday but on a reduced level far below RM100 million net," he said.

Adam said due to light foreign net selling last week, the cumulative year-to-date inflow slightly decreased to RM10.16 billion from RM10.20 billion.

He said so far out of 51 weeks, there has been only 17 weeks of foreign selling, a figure which is still better compared to 2016 which was over 20 weeks.

"Foreign participation dipped substantially last week as the foreign average daily trade (ADTV) eased by 48.0% to RM733.5 million.

"Meanwhile, the retail ADTV staged a slight recovery, increasing by 3.4% to RM934.6 million," he said.