KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 16): Selling by foreign investors was the heaviest in seven weeks for the week ended Nov 13, despite the holiday break on Tuesday, according to MIDF Research.

In his weekly fund flow report today, MIDF Research head Zulkifli Hamzah said that in aggregate, foreign funds offloaded RM714 million net of purchases, in the open market last week.

He said it was a case of foreign attrition every single day last week.

“On Monday, foreigners sold lightly ahead of the holiday on Tuesday.

“The real bearish intent was borne out when the market reopened on Wednesday when foreign funds offloaded RM274.5 million, the 51st time that the daily outflow exceeded the RM200 million mark,” he said.

Zulkifli said selling continued on Thursday, albeit moderately, but the attrition turned intense on Friday, as foreign investors sold RM321.5 million, the 16th highest in a day and the 52nd time it exceeded RM200 million in 2015.

He said that for 2015, last week’s sales increased the cumulative net foreign outflow to RM18.2 billion, compared with the RM6.9 billion outflow for the entire 2014.

He added that general foreign activity in the market continued to dwindle except for lumpy trades.

“Last week, foreign participation rate (i.e average daily gross volume) remained below the RM1 billion mark for the third consecutive week at RM894 million. The average was RM847 million the week before.

“On Monday and Thursday, the foreign participation rate was only RM578 million and RM708 million respectively,” he said.

Zulkifli said that however, on Wednesday and Friday, the gross volume spiked to RM1.2 million and RM1.1 million respectively.

He said the big swings in trading activity suggest lumpy trades.

“Meanwhile, local institutions supported the market, mopping up RM608 million on still active RM2.2 billion participation rate.

“The retail market was still vibrant last week. Despite the retracement in the prices of small caps, retail players mopped up RM106.1 million, the highest in seven weeks,” he said.

Zulkifli said this reflected plenty of bargain hunting activities, adding that trading was relatively active with participation rate at RM885 million.