Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (April 25): Foreign investors bought at a relatively subdued pace last week, but it was enough to stretch the buying streak to 10 consecutive weeks, according to MIDF Research.

In his weekly fund flow report today, MIDF Research head Zulkifli Hamzah said that at the closing bell on Friday, the tally for the week the amount of listed equities bought by foreign investors stood at RM107.0 million.

He said this was estimated based on transactions in the open market and excluded off market deals.

“The amount had receded for five consecutive weeks from the peak recorded in the week ended March 18, when RM1.48 billion was mopped up.
 
“In the 10-week buying spree, foreign investors had mopped up a whopping RM7.32 billion net,” he said.
 
Zulkifli said that foreign investors were net sellers in the first three trading days of the week, but the amount was marginal each day.
 
He said that on Thursday, foreign investors made a sudden comeback, buying up RM207.3 million, the highest in 13 trading days.
 
“That made it 21 out of 76 days this year that net purchase by foreign investors had exceeded RM200 million in a day.
 
“It was only 14 days in 2015. Foreign investors remained net buyers on Friday but the amount dwindled to RM57 million,” he said.
 
Zulkifli said that last week’s foreign purchases boosted the cumulative year-to-date net inflow to RM6.4b, still relatively
low after the RM19.5 billion net outflow for the whole of 2015 and RM6.9 billion in 2014.
 
“After two weeks in decline, foreign participation rate stabilised.
 
“The average daily value of shares traded rose marginally by 2% to RM850m, from RM833 million the week before.
 
“On Wednesday, participation surged to RM1.1 billion, only the 2nd day in 11 that the RM1 billion mark had been broken,” he said.
 
Zulkifli nevertheless said it was not sustainable as participation rate receded again.
 
He said that on Friday, foreign trade was only RM741 million, the lowest in 8 days.
 
“Local funds remained net sellers, offloading RM104.6 million last week but participation rate remained lively with average value traded rising to RM2.2 billion, the 8th straight week that it exceeded RM2 billion.
 
“Retail interests may be returning as participation rate rebounded 8% to RM623 million, the highest in 4 weeks. However, it was still in the low zone,” he said.

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