This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 15, 2016.
KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign investors remained buyers on Bursa Malaysia for the second consecutive week, acquiring RM1.6 billion year to date (YTD), said MIDF Research.
In the weekly fund flow report yesterday, MIDF Research head Zulkifli Hamzah said in weekly value terms, foreign buying intensity picked up.
He said net foreign buying, amounting to RM1.04 billion, last week was higher than the RM972.2 million in the preceding week.
He explained this is estimated based on transactions in the open market and excluded off-market deals. “It was an auspicious start to the week as buying was robust on Monday (yesterday), reflecting momentum from the [last] Friday before. Net amount bought by foreigners on Monday (yesterday) amounted to RM383.5 million, the third highest in a day this year.
“Monday’s (yesterday) figures also meant that foreign buying had exceeded RM300 million four days in a row, which is an uncommon phenomenon,” he said.
He said that last Friday, foreigners made a comeback, as the buying amount reverted to more than RM300 million at RM308.8 million.
“Last week’s foreign purchases boosted the cumulative year-to-date total to RM1.60 billion. For the entire 2015, the net outflow was RM19.5 billion,” he said.
He said the average daily value of shares traded remained above RM1 billion at RM1.03 billion.
“We note that the daily value had dipped below RM1 billion [last] Wednesday to Friday.
“Local investors are currently aggressively clearing some of their positions. Local institutions took the opportunity of foreign buying to offload RM1,015.8 million, only the second time that the amount had exceeded RM1 billion since May 2013,” he said.
Zulkifli said the participation rate intensified to RM2.31 billion, from RM2.23 billion the week before.
He said retail investors are still sluggigh in returning, and the level of conviction is still low.
Last week, retailers sold RM20.2 million on a still subdued participation rate of RM659 million, he said.