KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 23): Foreign investors turned net buyers on Bursa Malaysia last week after seven weeks of net outflow, with a marginal inflow of RM6.71 million, according to MIDF Research.
The local research firm said since the beginning of 2021, cumulatively, retailers have been the only net buyers of the local equity market to the tune of RM9.58 billion. Local institutions and foreign investors were net sellers to the tune of RM3.61 billion and RM5.97 billion, respectively.
"As the market reopened last Monday, foreign investors were net buyers amounting to RM20.84 million. Meanwhile, local institutions sold RM118.32 million net of local equities, with retailers as net buyers to the tune of RM97.48 million," it wrote in its weekly fund flow report today.
"Foreign investors were net sellers two days of the week. Largest foreign outflow was recorded on Thursday with the smallest outflow on Friday to the tune of RM119.46 million and RM23.12 million respectively. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday saw foreigners as net buyers at RM20.84 million, RM96.58 million and RM31.87 million," it added.
MIDF Research observed that retail investors were net buyers for every day of the week.
"Largest net buying by the retailers was lodged on Monday and smallest net buying was recorded on Friday to the tune of RM13.87 million. Cumulatively, for the week, retailers net bought RM202.56 million worth of equities in Bursa," it said.
Meanwhile, local institutions recorded cumulative weekly net selling to the tune of RM209.27 million.
"Local institutions were net sellers on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday with largest net selling on Tuesday to the tune of RM118.67 million," said MIDF Research.
In terms of participation the retail investors, local institutions and the foreign investors recorded a weekly movement of 6.82%, 12.26% and 23.56% respectively in average daily trade value.
Stock-wise, Public Bank Bhd registered the highest net money inflow of RM2.75 million last week, followed by Bursa Malaysia Bhd (RM2.04 million) and Gamuda Bhd (RM1.99 million).
Meanwhile, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd saw the largest net money outflow of RM4.41 million for the week ended on Aug 20, followed by IHH Healthcare Bhd (RM1.88 million) and TIME dotCom Bhd (RM1.8 million).
In Asia, however, foreign investors turned net sellers last week, MIDF Research said.
Based on the provisional aggregate data for the seven Asian exchanges that the research firm tracks (namely South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Taiwan and Malaysia), net outflow from investors classified as “foreign” was at a tune of about US$3.13 billion worth of equities. This was primarily driven by outflows from South Korea and Taiwan.
"Brent crude oil price saw a 7.5% decline in movement last week, to close at US$65.43 per barrel last Friday. According to Bloomberg, West Texas Intermediate crude fell for a sixth day on Thursday, closing below US$65 a barrel to its lowest level since May as the prospect for reduced stimulus rattles markets and the coronavirus health crisis rages on," said MIDF Research.
The FBM KLCI increased by 0.86% for the week to settle at 1,518.03 points. As for the ringgit, it saw a slight weekly appreciation by about 0.04% against the greenback to close 4.2390 last Friday.