KUALA LUMPUR (May 30): Foreign selling on Bursa continued for the fifth consecutive week, but at a receding magnitude, according to MIDF Research.

In his weekly fund flow report today, MIDF Research head Zulkifli Hamzah said the net amount offloaded by foreign investors edged down to RM709 million from RM1,158 million the week prior.

He said this was estimated based on transactions in the open market which excluded off market deals.

“Foreigners were net sellers on all days but one last week. As of Friday, foreign investors had been selling in 21 out of 23 straight days.

 
“We note that prior week’s selling momentum was carried forward into last week. The market started the week with a softer foreign selling at RM89.3 million,” he said..
 
However, Zulkifli said the momentum picked up on Tuesday with an attrition of RM318.5 million.
 
He said it was the second highest year-to-date daily attrition.
 
He said selling pressure later on subsided slightly to RM238.9 million on Wednesday, with the pace further slowed down to RM102.8 million on the following day.
 
“Foreigners finally reversed the selling trend, which had lasted for 10 straight trading days, on Friday with a net buying of RM40.1 million.
 
Zulkifli said last week’s foreign withdrawal further reduced the cumulative net foreign inflow thus far this year into share listed on Bursa to an estimated RM2.48 billion, down from prior week RM3.19 billion.
 
He said the figure has been on a declining trend for the fifth week.
 
“However, the amount is still modest relative to the RM19.5 billion and RM6.9 billion net outflow in 2015 and 2014 respectively.
 
“Foreign participation rate edged down by RM74 million last week. It has declined to RM927 million from prior week’s RM1 billion,” he said.
 
Zulkifli said this was its first time in one month to be at less that RM1 billion level.
 
He said daily total foreign trade was weak on Monday at RM580 million, and consistently stayed below RM1 billion for the following three days.
 
However, he said trading spirit picked up on Friday to RM1.29 billion, the third highest daily trading volume in May.
 
Zulkifli said local institution continued to support the market, mopping up RM679 million.
 
However, he said its participation rate declined for the second week to RM1.82 billion, the lowest since February this year.
 
Meanwhile, he said retail buyers turned net buyers last week by loading up RM30.4 million.
 
He said their participation rate edged up marginally to RM607 million.