This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 22, 2016.

KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign buying of Bursa Malaysia-listed stocks intensified last week, with foreigners buying 42% more compared with the preceding week, said MIDF Research.

In his weekly fund flow report yesterday, MIDF Research head Zulkifli Hamzah said for the second week running, the amount of net foreign purchase had exceeded RM1 billion.

He said foreigners bought listed equities totalling RM1.48 billion, compared with RM1.04 billion in the preceding week. This is estimated based on transactions in the open market, excluding off-

market deals.

Zulkifli also said foreign investors were net buyers everyday throughout the week.

He noted that as of last Friday, foreign investors had been buying continuously for 14 consecutive days.

He said that was the longest stretch of net inflow since the 22 days of non-stop buying in May 2014.

“Buying intensity was relatively constant from Monday (last Monday) to Thursday (last Thursday), averaging RM218 million.

“However, on Friday (last Friday) the net purchase amount surged to RM611.2 million, the second highest in a day this year after the RM706.1 million mopped up on Jan 29,” he said.

Zulkifli said thus far in March (until last Friday), cumulative net foreign purchases already amounted to RM3.63 billion.

“Provided there is no break in the momentum of the money flow, the haul in March is set to be the highest since April 2013, which was just before the general election.

“Meanwhile, last week’s foreign purchases boosted the cumulative year-to-date total to RM3.09 billion. For the entire 2015, the net outflow was RM19.5 billion,” he said.

Zulkifli said foreign participation rate rose 15%.

He said the average daily value of shares traded remained above RM1 billion for the third consecutive week at RM1.18 billion.

He added that last Friday, the gross trade amount hit RM2.22 billion, the second highest this year.

Zulkifli said local investors are still aggressive sellers, adding that local institutions offloaded RM1.39 billion, the third time that the amount had exceeded RM1 billion since May 2013.

He said participation rate eased slightly to RM2.28 billion, from RM2.31 billion the week before.

He said retail investors were still on the sideline despite offloading RM94.5 million last week. Their participation remained subdued at RM662 million, from RM659 million.