KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 27): Foreign investors remained net buyers for the week ended last Friday, which saw a paltry net inflow of RM15.85 million, compared with RM125.97 million the prior week.

In its weekly fund flow report this Monday, the MIDF Research team said this was the seventh consecutive week of net buying by foreign investors.

“As the market reopened last Monday, foreign investors and local institutions were net sellers amounting to RM120.77 million and RM17.88 million respectively.

“Meanwhile, retailers were net buyers to the tune of RM138.65 million,” it said.

MIDF Research said foreign investors were net buyers for the majority of the week except last Monday and Friday.

It said the largest foreign inflow was recorded last Thursday and the smallest inflow last Wednesday to the tune of RM117.45 million and RM25.32 million respectively.

“As for retailers, they were net buyers for every day of the week except last Thursday.

“The largest net buying by retailers was recorded last Monday and the smallest net buying last Wednesday to the tune of RM138.65 million and RM2.79 million respectively,” it said.

The research said that cumulatively, for the week, retailers net bought RM242.78 million worth of equities on Bursa Malaysia.

“Meanwhile, local institutions recorded cumulative weekly net selling to the tune of RM258.64 million.

“Local institutions were net sellers for every day of the week except last Friday. with the largest net selling last Tuesday to the tune of RM159.9 million, while the only inflow last Friday amounted to RM51.02 million,” it said.

MIDF Research said since the beginning of 2021, cumulatively, retailers were the only net buyers of the local equity market to the tune of RM10.28 billion.

It said local institutions and foreign investors were net sellers to the tune of RM6.64 billion and RM3.64 billion respectively.

“In terms of participation, retail investors, local institutions and foreign investors recorded weekly movements of 7.77%, 13.73% and -31.26% respectively in average daily trade value (ADTV),” it said.

Commenting on regional markets, MIDF Research said benchmarks around the globe were rather mixed last week on the back of: i) the ongoing Evergrande crisis as well as; ii) and US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decision to keep interest rates unchanged.

“Among the indices that we tracked, India's Sensex saw the biggest increase of 1.75%.

“Meanwhile, the FBM KLCI saw a decline by 1.06% despite slower inflation in Malaysia.

“In the US, after the FOMC’s September 2021 meeting, the US Federal Reserve (Fed) maintained the fed funds rate at 0.00% to 0.25% as widely expected,” it said.