KUALA LUMPUR (June 7): Foreign investors returned as net buyers once again last week, after one week of net selling, while buying of Malaysian equities rose to RM477.5 million (from a net outflow of RM82.97 million).

In its weekly fund flow report on Tuesday (June 7), the MIDF Research team said the previous occurrence when foreign investors were the sole net buyers was in the week ended May 20.

“Net buying from foreign investors came in last Monday through Wednesday. The highest was on Tuesday where it amounted to RM320.8 million, while the lowest was on Wednesday with RM111.2 million.

“In terms of net selling by foreign investors, it came in at RM67.3 million and RM9.3 million last Thursday and Friday respectively,” it said.

Meanwhile, MIDF said local retailers were net sellers once again after being net buyers the previous week.

It said net outflows from them last week summed up to RM121.4 million.

“Local institutions stayed as net sellers for the fourth consecutive week with RM356.1 million.

“To date, international funds have been net buyers for 17 out of the 22 weeks of 2022, with a total net inflow of RM7.4 billion,” it said.

MIDF said local institutions were net sellers for only the first three days to a total of RM426.1 million.

“Their heaviest outflow came last Tuesday at RM284 million.

“They have been net sellers for 19 out of 22 weeks this year. To date, they have sold RM8.5 billion of equities,” it said.

The research house said local retailers were net sellers every day of the week except last Thursday, when they net bought at RM10.5 million of equities.

“They have been net buyers for 13 out of 22 weeks of 2022.

“Year to date, local retailers have been net buyers at RM1.1 billion,” it said.

MIDF said that in terms of participation, all investor classes except for local retailers showed an improvement for the week.

“Foreign investors and local institutions saw an increase in the average daily trade value (ADTV) by 110.3% and 24% respectively.

“Meanwhile, local retailers were the only ones that posted a decline of 2.5% in ADTV,” it said.

Commenting on the global market, MIDF said most of Asian equities ended the trading week in the green, led by Japan, closing the highest in the region at 1.27%.

It said this was mostly due to the latest data on Japan's services sector in May, indicating a recovery following the easing of coronavirus curbs, offset by high energy and material costs pushed up input prices by a record rate.

It said China and Hong Kong were closed for public holidays.

“Meanwhile on Wall Street, all three major indices closed lower last Friday, weighed down by sell-offs in the technology, consumer discretionary, communications services, financials and industrials sectors.

“Out of the 16 indices that we track (excluding the Nasdaq), 10 advanced for the week, led by NKY (Nikkei 225) and JCI (the Jakarta Composite Index),” it said.