KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 7): Foreign selling of Malaysian equity on Bursa Malaysia tapered to RM54.4 million last week from RM127.6 million the prior week, according to MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd Research.

In his weekly fund flow report today, MIDF Research’s Adam M Rahim said on New Year’s eve, international investors sold RM36.1 million net on Bursa following the drop in China’s factory activity for the first time since 2016.

He said the local bourse remained flat, only ending 0.1% lower at 1,691 points on Monday.

Adam said it was also notable that the FBM KLCI gained 56 points since it hit its lowest level in 2018 of 1,635 points on Dec 18.

“Bursa kicked off 2019 on a sombre note as foreign funds sold RM55.4 million on Wednesday, bringing the foreign net selling streak to 12 days, the longest since the 37-day selling spree recorded from early May to late June 2018.

“Despite Apple’s slash in revenue guidance, foreign investors disregarded the news and took the opportunity to buy RM64.6 million net on Thursday, the largest daily inflow in more than 2 weeks,” he said.

Adam said foreign funds reverted to selling mode on Friday albeit at a moderate pace of RM27.5 million net.

“Optimism sparked by the China’s services gauge was outweighed by disappointing US manufacturing data as the ISM manufacturing index fell to 54.1 last month, the lowest level since November 2016.

“For the first three trading days of 2019, foreign funds pulled out RM18.3 million net or US$4.5 million net of equities from Bursa,” he said.

Adam explained that this is substantially lower than Thailand’s outflow of US$130.4 million net while Indonesia and the Philippines saw a net inflow of US$54.9 million and US$23.1 million, respectively.

He said the participation rate amongst the various groups of investors saw an increase across the board.

Adam said the average daily traded value (ADTV) of foreign investors registered the largest weekly advance of 36% but was still below the healthy level of RM1 billion.