KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 14): Foreign investors turned net buyers of local equities on Bursa Malaysia to the tune of RM70.91 million last week, from a net outflow of RM589.38 million in the first week of September, said MIDF Research.

In its weekly fund flow report, the MIDF team said this was the first net inflow in September.

“Combined, for the first two weeks of September, foreign investors were net sellers to the tune of RM518.47 million.

“Meanwhile, retailers were net buyers of RM456.61 million worth of equities last week, with local institutions selling RM527.51 million net during the same period,” it said.

MIDF said last week was the 10th consecutive week of local retailers being net buyers on Bursa to the tune of RM5.03 billion net, in comparison to local institutions as net sellers at RM707.40 million and foreign investors selling RM4.02 billion since early July.

It said as the market reopened last Monday, foreign investors sold RM72.45 million net of local equities, with retailers and local institutions as net buyers at RM68.91 million and RM3.54 million respectively.

“Foreign selling happened only on Monday and Tuesday at net outflows of RM72.45 million and RM11.52 million respectively before buying momentum started on Wednesday.

“The largest net inflow was on Thursday at RM94.81 million and the smallest was on Friday at RM1.33 million,” it said.

MIDF said so far in 2020, foreign investors’ net selling had amounted to RM20.87 billion worth of equities on Bursa.

As for local players, it said institutions were net buyers at RM10.88 billion and retailers at RM9.61 billion.

“In comparison to the other three Southeast Asian markets that we tracked last week, the Philippines recorded the least foreign net outflow, while Indonesia experienced the biggest outflow compared to the others,” it said.

MIDF add that in terms of participation on Bursa, retail investors recorded a weekly increase of 21.28% in average daily trading value (ADTV), while foreign investors experienced a decrease in ADTV of 14%.