KUALA LUMPUR (June 29): After the outflow appeared to be receding, heavy foreign selling resumed last week, pushing the net foreign outflow for the first half of 2015 to RM8.7 billion, according to MIDF Research.

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

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

He explained that last week, investors classified as “foreign” sold equity listed in the open market on Bursa amounting to RM824.7 million on a net basis.

He said that was a significant jump from the RM372.4 million sold the week before.

Zulkifli said it was a relatively intense week of foreign selling.

“Foreign investors were net sellers in the open market every single day of the week, although we note that the situation was similar in Jakarta and Manila.

“The net sale amount was more than RM100 million every day.

“On Thursday, the net outflow surged to RM269.2 million, the ninth highest in a day this year, and the 21st day that the amount had exceeded the RM200 million mark,” he said.

Zulkifli said that in comparison, net daily foreign sale in the open market exceeded RM200 million on 23 days in 2014.

“With two trading days left, the cumulative outflow for June 2015 is set to exceed RM3 billion.

“It would be the biggest monthly outflow since January 2014. For 2015, last week’s selldown increased the cumulative net foreign outfl ow to RM8.7 billion, surpassing the RM6.9 billion outflow for the entire 2014,” he said.

Zulkifli however noted that the heavy selling last week was on the back of moderate volume.

“Indeed, foreign participation (daily average gross purchase and sale) dropped significantly by 23% to RM788.8 million, the lowest this year (even lower than during the Chinese New Year).

“Local institutions mopped up RM846.8 million in the open market last week on active participation rate of RM2.13 billion.

“Local funds have mopped up RM9.9 billion this year, compared with RM8.2 billion in 2014. Retailers remained on the sideline,” he said.