KUALA LUMPUR (March 14): Foreign investors remained strong acquirers of Bursa-listed stocks last week for the second consecutive week, according to MIDF Research.

In his weekly fund flow report today, MIDF Research head Zulkifli Hamzah said that in weekly value terms, foreign buying intensity actually picked up.

He said foreigners bought listed equities amounting to RM1.04 billion (net) on Bursa last week, higher than the RM972.2 million acquired in the preceding week.

He explained this was estimated based on transactions in the open market, and excluded off market deals.

“It was an auspicious start to the week, as buying was robust on Monday [March 7], reflecting momentum from the Friday before [March 4]. Net amount bought by foreigners on Monday amounted to RM383.5 million, the third highest in a day this year.

“Monday’s figures also meant that foreign buying had exceeded RM300 million four days in a row, which is an uncommon phenomenon,” he said.

Zulkifli however, said the intensity waned on Tuesday (March 8) to Thursday (March 10), as the daily net purchases dipped below RM200 million.

He said that foreigners made an abrupt comeback on Friday (March 11), as the buying amount reverted to more than RM300 million at RM308.8 million.

“As of [last] Friday, foreign investors had been net buyers on Bursa for nine consecutive trading days.

“Last week’s foreign purchases boosted the cumulative year-to-date total to RM1.60 billion. For the entire 2015, the net outflow was RM19.5 billion,” he said.

Zulkifli said foreign participation rate fell by 27%, but remained elevated nevertheless.

He said the average daily value of shares traded remained above RM1 billion at RM1.03 billion.

“We note that the daily value had dipped below RM1 billion on Wednesday — Friday.

“Local investors are currently aggressively clearing some of their positions. Local institutions took the opportunity of foreign buying to offload RM1,015.8 million, only the second time that the amount had exceeded RM1 billion since May 2013,” he said.

Zulkifli said participation rate intensified to RM2.31 billion, from RM2.23 billion the week before.

He said retail investors are still sluggish in returning, and the level of conviction is still low.

Last week, retailers sold RM20.2 million on still-subdued participation rate of RM659 million, he said.