Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 1): Foreign funds extended buying Malaysian equities for a second week running, albeit at a slower pace of RM152.9 million last week, from RM191.27 million the prior week.

In its weekly fund flow report on Monday (Aug 1), the MIDF Research team said net selling only occurred last Tuesday at RM14 million, prior to the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, but this was easily negated by net inflows recorded in the four other trading days.

It said the strongest net inflow from foreign funds was on Thursday at RM50.5 million, which was during and after the FOMC meeting.

“The week started with a net inflow of RM25.1 million last Monday by foreign investors, and ended with a net inflow of RM18.9 million last Friday.

“Local institutions maintained their net selling stance for the third week at a rate of RM70.7 million.

“They were net sellers of RM62.8 million last Thursday, RM36.9 million last Wednesday, and RM11.5 million last Monday,” it said.

MIDF said these were softened by net buying last Tuesday and Friday at RM15.2 million and RM25.4 million respectively.

“Local retailers were still net sellers last week at a rate RM82.3 million.

“They were net sellers every day of the week, with the heaviest outflow last Friday at RM44.3 million, and the lowest last Tuesday at RM1.2 million,” it said.

The research house said local retailers had been net selling for eight consecutive trading days.

“The top three sectors which saw net inflows by foreign investors were financial services, utilities, and consumer products and services.

“These came in at RM222.8 million, RM49.8 million and RM25.1 million respectively,” it said.

MIDF said that meanwhile, the top three sectors with net outflows were industrial products and services at RM86 million, technology at RM59.2 million, and plantation at RM12.5 million.

It said to date, international funds were net buyers for 19 out of 30 weeks of 2022, with a total net inflow of RM6.27 billion.

“Local institutions were net sellers for 23 out of 30 weeks, with a total net outflow of RM7.96 million.

“Local retailers were net buyers for 19 out of 30 weeks of 2022. Year-to-date, they are net buyers at RM1.7 billion,” it said.

MIDF said it should be noted that the end of the month of July saw foreign funds posting a net inflow, which was a reversal from the net outflow seen in June.

It said the net inflow for the month of July was RM182.2 million.

“In terms of participation, there was an increase in average daily trade value (ADTV) among retail and institutional investors by 10.98% and 17.17% respectively.

“There was a decline in ADTV among foreign investors by 8.81%,” it said.

Commenting on the global scenario, MIDF said the benchmark indices of Wall Street posted strong gains to mark their best performing month since 2020.

It said the S&P 500 gained 9.1% in July, while the Dow rose 6.7%, whereas the Nasdaq Composite Index saw an increase of 12.4% for the month.

“Out of the 16 major indices that we track, 13 were in positive territory, led by the S&P 500 with a weekly growth of 4.26%.

“France’s CAC 40 came in second at 3.73%, while the Dow posted a 2.97% increase to come in third.

“The only three decliners were the Hang Seng Index at 2.2%, China’s CSI 300 at 1.61%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 at 0.4%,” it said.

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