KUALA LUMPUR: Investors classified as foreign bought RM307. 3 million last week compared with RM354.4 million two weeks ago, according to MIDF Research.

In his weekly fund flow report yesterday, MIDF Research Zulkifli Hamzah said that in contrast to the apparent selldown in Jakarta and Manila, foreign funds persisted with their build-up of Malaysian equity portfolio.

“We note that foreign investors were net buyers every single day last week.

“Indeed, they had been net buyers in 10 out of the last 11 trading days, during which an amount of appro-

ximately RM700 million was mopped up. Foreign funds sold RM539.9 million net in March, and this has already been reversed in April, as the cumulative net purchase for the month until last Friday was RM633.1 million,” he said.

Zulkifli said that for 2015, last week’s purchase reduced further the cumulative net foreign outflow to RM2.79 billion. In comparison, he said the cumulative foreign outflow for 2014 was RM6.93 billion.

“The foreign presence on Bursa increased suddenly last week. The participation rate of foreign investors rose to its highest in four weeks. The daily average gross purchase and sale climbed back to above RM1 billion at RM1.05 billion,” he said.

Zulkifli said the continued foreign buying had enabled local investors to offload their positions.

He said local institutions sold RM159.6 million net, the fifth consecutive week of selling.

He explained that participation rate surged to RM2.51 billion average daily, the third highest this year.

Zulkifli said local institutions had absorbed RM3.72 billion net so far this year. In 2014, they mopped up RM8.18 billion net, he said.

He also said retailers had continued to exit the market last week, selling RM147.7 million.

“In the last five weeks, retailers have sold a cumulative RM650 million. Most significantly, retail participation rate spiked to RM947 million last week, the highest this year.

“Amid retail selling, the FBM Small Cap Index rose 2.6% last week, its best weekly performance in 12 weeks,” he said.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 21, 2015.