KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 19): Foreign selling of local equities on Bursa Malaysia surged to RM237.09 million last week, from RM28.38 million in the prior week, said MIDF Research.

According to its weekly fund flow report today, foreign investors have sold RM809.38 million cumulatively in October.

“Last week, retailers were net buyers of RM133.15 million worth of equities, with local institutions at RM103.96 million net during the same period.

“This marked the fourth consecutive week of local institutions as net buyers on Bursa,” it said.

MIDF said after three consecutive weeks as net sellers, last week saw retailers as net buyers.

“It began on Tuesday with net buying of RM81.45 million and [this was] carried [on] for the rest of the week.

“This is a potential signal for the return of buying appetite for retailers with bargain-hunting activities, renewed interest in glove stocks with a surge in [new] Covid-19 cases and some political uncertainty subsided.

“Comparatively, the last three weeks saw retailers as net sellers to the tune of RM491.32 million worth of Malaysian equities,” it said.

MIDF said as the market reopened last Monday, foreign investors bought RM38.97 million net of local equities, with retailers and local institutions as net sellers and net buyers at RM67.94 million and RM29.38 million respectively.

However, it said, this inflow was negated as the week went by, with net selling onwards since Wednesday.

The research house said the largest outflow was on Friday at RM151.45 million and the smallest outflow occurred on Thursday at RM47.56 million.

“So far in 2020, foreign investors' net selling has reached RM22.59 billion worth of equities on Bursa.

“In comparison to another three Southeast Asian markets that we tracked last week, Indonesia recorded the least foreign net outflow, while Thailand experienced the biggest outflow compared to the others,” it said.

MIDF said in terms of participation, retail investors recorded a weekly increase of 27.79% in average daily trading value (ADTV), while foreign investors experienced an increase in ADTV of 29.85%.