KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 26): Foreign investors returned to Bursa with the strongest inflow in 10 weeks and bought RM733.4 million last week after they offloaded RM565.9 million the week prior amid a three-day trading week, according to MIDF Research.

In his weekly fund flow report today, MIDF Research head Zulkifli Hamzah said foreigners’ participation rate remained relatively strong last week at RM921.36 million albeit lower than the RM1,214.63 million recorded the week before.

He said they were net buyers in the last five trading days of the week after four days of net selling prior due to the short trading week.

“They bought RM16.3 million on Monday, RM34.7 million on Tuesday, RM45.2 million on Wednesday, RM49.6 million on Thursday and RM31.9 million on Friday.

“The increased buying on Thursday was mainly due attributed to strong CPO price, which hit RM2,909 per tonne- the highest in four years,” he said.

Zulkifli said that benefits listed plantation companies with upstream operations the most.

He said the ringgit was also the strongest in the week on Thursday at USD/RM4.1095.

He said year-to-date cumulative net foreign inflow was the highest in 18 weeks at RM2,544.1 million compared with RM1,810.7 million a week ago.

“In retrospect, foreigners had offloaded RM19.5 billion in 2015 and RM6.9 billion in 2014.

Zulkifli said the local equities market was considerably vibrant last week as participation rate from both local funds and retailers improved to RM2,140.86 million (from RM2,033.13 million the week before) and RM624.6 million (from RM518.9 million the week before) respectively.

He said local institutions turned net sellers during the week, offloading RM738.7 million.

“They sold for the latest 5 trading days after 6 days of net buying prior.

“On a weekly basis, they were net buyers for three successive weeks before last week. The selling by local funds last week was the heaviest since April,” he said.

Zulkifli said retailers became net buyers two weeks in a row as they bought RM5.3 million last week and RM80.9 million the week prior.

He said they bought RM1,564.2 million last week, the highest in 4 weeks.

“On the flipside, the selling last week was the highest in 5 weeks at RM1,558.9 million.

“Retailers were net buyers ahead of the Fed meeting and took profit on Thursday and Friday,” he said.