KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 16): Foreign selling of Malaysian equity slowed down to RM367.1 million net of local equities last week, from RM834.6 million the prior week, according to MIDF Investment Bank Bhd Research.

In his weekly fund flow report today, MIDF Research’s Adam M Rahim, however, said December has so far seen an outflow of RM1.2 billion, taking the year-to-date outflow as of last Friday to RM11.13 billion.

He said Bursa Malaysia had a bumpy start to the week as foreign investors took out RM131.3 million net of local equities on Monday.

“Optimism on strong US jobs report on the preceding Friday was outweighed by weak export figures of China.

“Foreign net selling inched lower on Tuesday to reach RM123.4 million net as investors appear reluctant to place bets ahead of the Dec 15 deadline for the US to place more tariffs on China," he said.

Adam said offshore investors continued to lower their selling activity to RM112.2 million as the Trump administration and House of Democrats reached a deal that would move the US-Mexico-Canada agreement forward.

He said international funds made a modest return to Bursa on Thursday at a tune of RM39.7 million net, snapping the 16-day foreign net selling streak.

“The local stock barometer followed suit to see its first gain in four days after the US Fed left its key benchmark rate unchanged through 2020 amidst a solid economic outlook.

“The foreign net inflow was however short-lived as foreign funds sold RM40 million net on Friday,” he said.

Adam said this was despite news that US President Donald Trump agreed to a limited trade agreement with Beijing that will roll back existing tariffs on Chinese goods, effectively averting the new waves of tariff scheduled on Dec 15.

“December has so far seen a foreign net outflow of RM1.2 billion.

“Meanwhile the year-to-date foreign net outflow from Malaysia as of last Friday has reached RM11.13 billion, only RM561.0 million short of last year’s total foreign net outflow of RM11.69 billion,” he said.

Adam said in terms of participation, foreign investors saw the sharpest increase in average daily traded value amongst the other investor groups, gaining 49.4% to reach RM1.08 billion.