• Foreign holdings of MYR debts securities decreased to RM205.4bn
• Foreigners sold RM3.2bn of MGS and GII in April
• Total portfolio outflow of RM3.2bn for equities and debt securities combined
• MYR bonds should see support with stabilizing UST

Foreign net buying interest relatively muted in April following the selloff triggered by spike in UST yields late April.

Foreign ownership of Malaysian debt securities declined RM4.7bn in April to RM205.4bn. Foreign holdings of MGS in April decreased by RM3.1bn to RM162.8bn (Mar: RM165.9bn; Feb: RM165.5bn; Jan: RM168.6bn) whilst foreign ownership of GII declined by RM0.1bn to RM18.7bn (Mar: RM18.8bn; Feb: RM18.4bn; Jan: RM18.9bn). Given the outflow of RM3.2bn to RM181.5bn in foreign ownership of government debt (MGS + GII), total foreign holding in government debt decreased to 27.7% from 28.6% in April.

Meanwhile, foreign holdings of discount instruments decreased by RM0.6bn to RM8.8bn while foreign holdings of PDS declined by RM0.8bn to RM15.1bn. In combined amounts (inclusive of short-term bills/notes and corporate bonds/sukuk), foreign holding levels in April 2018 were lower by RM4.7bn, bringing total foreign ownership of MYR bonds to RM205.4bn or 15.1%.

As at end-Apr, there were RM4.7bn outflows (Mar: +2.8bn; Feb: -RM3.9bn; Jan: +RM4.4bn) from total debt securities while foreigners bought RM1.5bn of equities (Mar: -0.06bn; Feb: -RM1.1bn; Jan: +3.4bn). This means a total portfolio outflow of RM3.2bn for equities and debt securities combined (Mar: +2.74bn; Feb: -RM5.0bn; Jan: +7.8bn). Meanwhile, April was the first month of inflows for equity market since January 2018 and this brought the year-to-date equity inflow of around RM3.7bn.

Source: BIMB Securities Research - 14 May 2018