KUALA LUMPUR (June 19): Foreign investors succumbed to negative global sentiment and sold RM99.6 million of Malaysian equity in four days of trading on Bursa Malaysia last week, according to MIDF Research.

In its weekly fund flow report today, the MIDF Research Strategy Team said there was relatively heavy foreign selling on Friday of RM189.3 million, the highest in a day this year, after the Fed rate hike on Thursday and gains in U.S. treasury yields which boosted the U.S dollar.

“Despite the deficit last week, cumulative year-to-date purchases by foreign investors still amounted to RM10.3 billion net.

“In fact, foreigners have been net sellers in only 3 out of 24 weeks in 2017,” it said.

The research house said that on a positive note, foreigners were actively trading Malaysian equity last week.

It said foreign participation was vibrant as foreign average daily trade value (ADTV) rose above the RM1 billion mark, increasing by 40% for the week, from RM999.0 million to RM1.4 billion.

“Indeed foreign participation exceeded RM1 billion in three out of four trading days last week,” it said.

MIDF Research said that in contrast, the retail market was rather sluggish.

It said retail ADTV declined by 9.3% for the week to RM812.7 million from RM896.2 million the week before.