KUALA LUMPUR (July 6): Foreign selling of Malaysian equities on Bursa Malaysia has persisted despite the rating upgrade by Fitch, taking year-to-date selling to RM9 billion, according to MIDF Research.

In his weekly fund flow report, MIDF Research head Zulkifli Hamzah said foreign investors had now been net sellers on Bursa for ten consecutive weeks.

He said it has been the longest stretch of foreign withdrawal since the exodus during the last three months of 2013.

“Last week, investors classified as “foreign” sold equity listed in the open market on Bursa (i.e excluding off-market deals) amounted to RM314.9 million on a net basis.

“However, that was a significant drop from the RM824.7 million sold the week before,” he said.

Zulkifli said foreigners were net sellers every day last week.

He said selling continued on Wednesday, albeit marginally, the day after Fitch upgraded Malaysia’s rating outlook from “negative” to “stable”.

“However, foreign selling appears to be ebbing again, after the surge in outflow in the preceding week.

“Cumulative outflow for June 2015 exceeded RM3 billion as expected, at RM3.15 billion.

“It was the biggest monthly outflow since January 2014. For 2015, last week’s selldown increased the cumulative net foreign outflow to RM9.0 billion, significantly surpassing the RM6.9 billion outflow for the entire 2014,” he said.

Zulkifli said foreign participation rose to a “moderate-high” level with daily volume for the week averaging RM962 million. However, he said there was a significant drop in volume on Friday, understandably so ahead of the referendum in Greece.

“Local institutions mopped up RM470.8 million in the open market last week on active participation rate of RM2.13 billion.

“Local funds have mopped up RM10.4 billion this year, compared with RM8.2 billion in 2014,” he said.