KUALA LUMPUR (May 9): Foreign selling on Bursa continued for the second consecutive week and increased to RM623.1 million, from RM430.8 million last week, according to MIDF Research.

In his weekly fund flow report today, MIDF Research head Zulkifli Hamzah said this was despite trading being restricted to only four days as the market was closed on Monday .

He said as of Friday, foreigners had been net sellers for eight consecutive days.

“Heavy selling was recorded on Wednesday and Thursday as attrition exceeded RM200 million per day.

“That made it seven days this year that the threshold had been broken. However we note that the outfl ow amount receded significantly on Friday to only RM32 million.

“On Friday too, the Ringgit rose for the first time in six days,” he said.

He said last week’s foreign withdrawal reduced the cumulative year-to-date net infl ow to RM5.34 billion, down from a peak of RM6.47 billion.

He said the amount is still modest relative to the RM19.5 billion and RM6.9 billion net outflow in 2015 and 2014 respectively.

Zulkifli said the heavy selling by foreigners lifted foreign participation rate by 15% last week.

“The average daily value of shares traded rose to RM1.06 billion, from RM923 million the week before.

“It was the first time in five weeks that foreign participation rate had averaged more than RM1 billion,” he said.

Zulkifli said on Wednesday, total foreign trade surged to RM1.31 billion, the highest in 23 days on heavy selling.

He said local funds and retailers supported the market last week, albeit passively.

“Local institutions mopped up RM538.5 million, on RM1.998 billion participation rate.

“It was the first time that average trading value fell below the RM2 billion mark in ten weeks,” he said.

Zulkifli said retail interests, which appeared to be returning dissipated disappointingly.

He said participation rate plunged 16% as the average value traded by retailers fell to RM598 million.