KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 1): Foreign tide into Bursa remained marginal last week, according to MIDF Research.

In his weekly fund flow report today, MIDF Research head Zulkifli Hamzah said the net amount purchased by foreign investors edged up slightly to RM105.5 million from RM31.2 million the week prior.

He said the estimates are based on transactions in the open market which excluded off market deals.

“Foreign daily net flow was alternating between inflow and outflow throughout the week, as foreign investors seemingly tried to strike a balance point.

“Foreign investors ended their selling trend in the second half of the preceding week and Bursa commenced on Monday with a net purchase of RM30 million,” he said.

However, Zulkifli said the flow turned negative on Tuesday as they offloaded RM76.9 million.

He said the buying momentum re-emerged on Wednesday as foreigners loaded up RM133.6 million, but that was ended abruptly on the following day with a net selling of RM33.6 million.

Zulkifli said foreign investors eventually closed the week with another net purchase of RM52.4 million on Friday.

He said the cumulative net foreign inflow thus far this year into shares listed on Bursa is edging toward the RM1 billion level.

He said that as of last Friday, the year-to-date cumulative flow into Bursa increased to an estimated RM959.3 million from RM853.8 million the week prior.

He said that in retrospect, foreigners had offloaded RM19.5 billion and RM6.9 billion in 2015 and 2014 respectively.

Zulkifli said that foreign participation rate has demonstrated an improvement.

He said it edged up to RM945.6 million from RM824.4 million the week prior.

“Despite that, it has been staying below the RM1 billion level for the seventh time in the past 8 weeks,” he said.

Zulkilfi said local institution sold RM92 million last week, after a negligible attrition of RM500,00 in previous week.

He said it has been net sellers for 4 weeks in a row.

Meanwhile, he said its participation rate improved slightly to RM1.98 billion from RM1.93 billion the week prior.

Zulkifli said the rate has remained below the RM2 billion level for the second week.

He said retail buyers continued to sell on Bursa, extending their selling trend to the sixth consecutive week.

However, he said the selling magnitude further moderated to RM13.5 million, compared to RM30.7 million the week prior.

Meanwhile, he said their participation rate decreased to RM560.8 million, down from previous week’s RM606.3 million.