KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 19): Foreign selling of Malaysian equities narrowed to RM258.6 million last week, from RM731.8 million the prior week, as the political scenario in the country found greater clarity.

In its weekly fund flow report on Monday (Dec 19), the MIDF Research team said every trading day last week was a net selling day by foreigners, except for Wednesday.

It said the heaviest net selling was recorded at RM179.0 million on Thursday.

“They net sold at lower rates at RM52.2 million on Monday, RM36.2 million on Tuesday, and RM12.6 million on Friday.

“In contrast, Wednesday was the only net buying day by foreign investors at a rate of RM21.4 million,” it said.

MIDF said the top three sectors that saw net foreign inflows were telecommunications and media at RM38.5 million, construction at RM35.2 million, and consumer products and services at RM32.0 million.

Meanwhile, it said the top three sectors that saw net foreign outflows were financial services at RM125.7 million, plantation at RM108.2 million, and healthcare at RM78.6 million.

MIDF said local institutions continued to net buy for the third consecutive week, on the back of a more stable political climate domestically, which boosted investor sentiment.

It said they net bought RM223.14 million last week, which was lower than the RM680.4 million recorded amount in the previous week.

The research house said every trading day last week was a net buying day for this investor class, with the heaviest net buying recorded at RM134.81 million on Thursday.

Meanwhile, it said local retailers continued to be net buyers at a rate of RM35.6 million last week, slightly lower than net buying of RM51.4 million in the previous week.

It said they were net buyers on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, with the heaviest net buying at RM44.2 million on Thursday.

MIDF said they turned into net sellers at a rate of RM29.7 million on Wednesday, and RM9.1 million  on Friday.

It said foreign investors were net buyers for 27 out of 50 weeks of 2022, with a total net inflow of RM4.54 billion.

The research house said local institutions were net sellers for 32 out of 50 weeks, with a total net outflow of RM6.66 billion.

It said local retailers were net buyers for 32 out of 50 weeks.

It said that year-to-date, they are net buyers at RM2.13 billion.

“In terms of participation, there was a decline in average daily trading volume among local institutions by 12.55%, retailers (-12.29%), and foreign investors (-9.02%),” it said.

Commenting on global markets, MIDF said that for the week, the S&P 500 fell 2.09%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.66%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 2.72% as recession worries resurfaced.

“Out of the 16 major indices that we track, most were in negative territory, led by France’s CAC 40 Index (3.37%), and German’s DAX Index (3.32%).

“The only markets that saw gains were the Jakarta Composite Index (1.45%) and Malaysia’s FBM KLCI (0.09%),” it said.