KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 28): Foreign funds continued buying Malaysian equities last week at a slower pace of RM675.65 million, from RM955.85 million the prior week, on the back of favour for commodities players, as well as the plantation and energy sectors.

In its weekly fund flow report on Monday (Feb 28), the MIDF Research team said that so far in 2022, international funds have been net buyers on Bursa for six out of eight weeks.

“Foreigners continued to be net buyers every day of the week since Feb 11 — two weeks ago.

“The largest foreign inflow was recorded last Friday at RM266 million and the smallest inflow was on Monday at only RM41.83 million,” it said.

MIDF noted that local institutions were active sellers last week.

It said the largest net outflow was on Tuesday and the smallest on Thursday to the tune of RM255.2 million and RM54.9 million respectively.

“Retailers were net sellers every day of the week except on Monday (RM129 million) and Tuesday (RM126.3 million).

The research house said the largest net selling was recorded last Friday at RM35.3 million, while the smallest net selling was on Wednesday at RM3.53 million.

“Overall, for the eighth week of 2022, foreign investors finished strong as net buyers at RM675.7 milllion, followed by retailers as the second strong net buyers at RM192 million.

“Local institutions were the only strong net sellers at RM867.7 million,” it added.

MIDF said that in terms of participation, retail investors, local institutions and foreign investors recorded weekly movements of +20.21%, -0.43% and +18.2% respectively in average daily trade value.

“The sectors that saw the largest net inflows from foreign investors were finance, plantation, and industrial products and services.

“These amounted to RM374.3 million, RM247.6 million and RM119.2 million respectively,” it said.

MIDF stated that on a year-to-date basis, it had observed RM2.7 billion in net inflows from foreign investors and RM600 million in net inflows from retailers.

Meanwhile, local institutions were the only net sellers to the tune of RM2.8 billion.

Commenting on the international scenario, MIDF noted that worldwide equity markets ended in the red last week due to geopolitical concerns over the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

It said the FBM KLCI decreased by 0.71% in tandem with global markets.