Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (June 20): Foreigners resumed their selling momentum in May last week after prior week’s hiatus, according to MIDF Research.

In his weekly fund flow report today, MIDF Research head Zulkifli Hamzah said that foreign selling in Bursa has extended for the eighth consecutive week.

He said the net amount offloaded by foreign investors increased substantially to RM1.01 billion last week from RM169.9 million the week prior.

He said it was the third largest selling since Sept 25.

He said the estimates are based on transactions in the open market which excluded off market deals.

“Foreigners were net sellers on all five trading days last week.

“We note that prior week’s slowdown in foreign selling appeared to be transient.

“Selling momentum was strong at more than RM180 million per day on Monday through Thursday,” he said.

Zulkifli said that foreigners started the week with heavy attrition of RM227.4 million and RM284.5 million on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.

He said selling pressure eased slightly to RM184 million on Wednesday.

“However, the pace picked up again on Thursday at RM273 million.

“Foreigners eventually closed the week with a milder attrition of RM43.3 million,” he said.

Zulkifli said last week’s foreign withdrawal further reduced the cumulative net foreign inflow thus far this year into share listed on Bursa to an estimated RM100.6 million, down significantly from prior week RM1.11 billion.

He said it was the lowest figure since Feb 26 this year.

“The figure has been on a declining trend for eight successive weeks.

“In retrospect, foreigners had offloaded RM19.5 billion and RM6.9 billion in 2015 and 2014 respectively,” he said.

Zulkifli said foreign participation rate remained moderate last week.

He said it was little changed at RM812.3 million, up 0.3% from prior week.

“Excluding off the outlier data point two weeks ago due to foreigners’ mid-year portfolio rebalancing, their participation rate has remained subdued at less than RM1 billion for three consecutive weeks.

“Local institution provided support to the market by loading up RM799.1 million on Bursa last week.

“Despite that, its participation rate declined further to RM1.6 billion from prior week’s RM1.9 billion. It was the second lowest figure in one year time,” he said.

Zulkifli said retail buyers turned active players last week by loading up RM213.1 million.

He said it was their biggest buying since the end of April this year.

However, their participation rate has edged down to RM487.8 million, he said.

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