KUALA LUMPUR (July 13): There was a heavy foreign outflow from Bursa last week, mirroring the situation in Asia, according to MIDF Research.

In his weekly fund flow report today, MIDF Research head Zulkifli Hamzah said foreign investors had now been net sellers on Bursa for eleven consecutive weeks.

He said that last week, investors classified as “foreign” sold equity listed in the open market on Bursa amounting to RM811.7 million on a net basis.

He said that was the seventh highest this year.

Zulkifli said foreigners were net sellers every day last week and had been selling in the last 17 trading days.

“Indeed, selling had been unrelentless and net outflow had been recorded in the last 38 out of 39 trading days.

“There was heavy foreign withdrawal on Wednesday when investors offloaded RM374 million, the third highest in a day this year.

“However, we reiterate our view that the heaviest of the foreign selldown is in the past,” he said.

Zulkifli added that last week, despite the global turmoil, the amount offloaded by foreigners exceeded the RM200 million mark only on Wednesday.

He said there was no pick-up in selling momentum thereafter.

“For 2015, last week’s selldown increased the cumulative net foreign outflow to RM9.8 billion, significantly surpassing the RM6.9 billion outflow for the entire 2014.

He explained that foreign participation rate remained at the upper end of the “moderate” category, with daily volume for the week averaging RM921 million.

“However, gross volume exceeded the RM1 billion mark only on Wednesday.

“It tapered to less than RM1 billion thereafter, and was down to RM719 million on Friday,” he said.

Zulkifli said local institutions mopped up RM785.7 million in the open market last week on declining participation rate of RM1.92 billion, the first time it dipped below the RM2 billion mark in four weeks.

“Local funds have mopped up RM11.2 billion this year, compared with RM8.2 billion in 2014.

“Retailers started nibbling in the market with a marginal net purchase of RM26 million.

“We note that retail activity has been gaining momentum, although it is still at moderate level,” he said.