KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 20): Foreign selling of Malaysian equities extended for a fourth week, albeit at a slower pace, with the outflow narrowing to RM348.36 million last week versus RM383.76 million in the preceding week.

In its weekly fund flow report on Monday (Dec 20), MIDF Research’s Shahira Rahim said as the market reopened last Monday, local institutions and retailers were net buyers amounting to RM9.02 million and RM44.19 million respectively.

Meanwhile, she said, foreign investors were net sellers to the tune of RM53.21 million.

“Foreign investors were net sellers every day of the week. The largest foreign outflow was recorded on Tuesday, which came in at RM153.28 million. 

“Retailers were net buyers every day of the week.

“The largest net buying by retailers was recorded last Monday (RM44.19 million). For the week, retailers net bought RM126.45 million worth of equities on Bursa [Malaysia],” she added.

Meanwhile, Shahira said local institutions recorded cumulative weekly net buying to the tune of RM221.92 million.

She said local institutions were net buyers for all days of the week.

“The largest net buying [occurred] on Tuesday to the tune of RM115.82 million.

“Since the beginning of 2021, cumulatively, retailers were the only net buyers of our equity market to the tune of RM12.44 billion.

“Local institutions and foreign investors were net sellers to the tune of RM9.31 billion and RM3.13 billion respectively,” she added.

Shahira said that in terms of participation, retail investors, local institutions and foreign investors recorded weekly movements of -4.93%, -0.59% and 15.11% respectively in average daily trade value.

Commenting on regional markets, Shahira said the majority of equity markets worldwide were in mixed territory due to: i) inflation concerns; ii) uncertainty over the Omicron variant of Covid-19; and iii) hawkish pivots by the US Federal Reserve which dampened investor confidence in the market.