Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on November 13, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign investors resumed selling on Bursa Malaysia last week as global political developments led to mixed reactions towards equities, said MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd’s research unit.

Foreigners withdrew a total of RM182.9 million, excluding off-market deals from Bursa — more than half the amount accumulated in the preceding week, MIDF Research said in a report yesterday. Prior to this, investors sold Malaysian equities for four straight weeks.

“[Last] Monday saw a staggering outflow of RM378.6 million net, the highest in a day since July 6, 2018 as investors cashed in gains ahead of the Deepavali holiday on (last) Tuesday,” MIDF Research analyst Adam M Rahim wrote in the report.

On top of that, investors were wary of US employment data released last Friday, supporting the case for further rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve, he said.

Although the local market observed foreign buying last Wednesday, the outflow continued last Thursday and Friday. “So far, the month of November has seen a foreign net outflow of RM4.6 million. Meanwhile, on a year-to-date basis, foreign investors have sold RM9.9 billion of stocks on Bursa,” Adam said.

“Nevertheless, Malaysia still has the second-lowest foreign net outflow among four Asean markets that we monitor.”

Last week, more than half of Southeast Asian markets experienced foreign net buying. Globally, equity markets were mixed amid political developments including the US midterm elections and key economic numbers from China.

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