Bursa Malaysia's total market capitalisation held by foreign investors, is estimated to be about 21.5 per cent currently, assuming a net foreign selldown of about RM4 billion since the beginning of the year.

The percentage of its total market capitalisation held by foreign investors was 21.9 per cent at the end of December, MIDF Research said in a note today.

It said foreign investors have been selling down local shares since January, after a bullish start to the year.

Local institutions continued to prop up the market while retailers were still relatively heavy net sellers, MIDF said, adding, gross purchase by local institutions amounted to RM4.5 billion last week, similar to that of the previous week.

'Risk aversion is creeping back into the market. There is too much uncertainty in the world currently for equity investors to be even remotely aggressive,' it said. 'Locally, the market's volatility appears to be increasing by the day,' it added. -- Bernama