It is no secret that foreign investors haven't been the biggest fans of Bursa for a while now. As a group, foreign investors have been net sellers of Malaysian stock almost inconvertibly since early 2018. At present the foreign shareholding of Bursa-listed companies has fallen close to an all-time low of 20.3%, seen only once before (in 2010, in the midst of the Global Financial Crisis). While this should worry (or at least be seriously noted by) both related stakeholders and local investors, it is interesting that foreign investors have continuously been buying into one sector since the beginning of the year. I first reported on this about a month ago here.

According to data by CGS-CIMB, number 1 in the net buy list of foreign institutional investors in Malaysia since the beginning of the year, is Top Glove, followed by Supermax. A distant third is Press Metal, and Kossan comes fourth right after that. Hartalega is eighth. Here is how the top 10 list of net buys for foreign investors YTD looks like:

Note again that this is amid a significant net outflow of foreign funds from Malaysia's stock market. In recent chats I have mentioned that I myself would have likely been very cautious about Bursa, if it was not for the heavy sell-off in that same sector foreign investors have been buying into, which started around October-November last year. It seems like my opinion coincides to a certain extent with that of foreign institutional investors. Time will show if we have all been wrong.

Another interesting development is that while retail investors have been net buyers of Supermax year to date (6th highest net buy for the investor group), they have turned net sellers of the company's stock last week (4th highest net sell for the week) while Supermax has topped the list of net buys of foreign investors 3 of the past 5 weeks (including last week).

In fact the market movements of retail investors and foreign investors appear to rarely overlap, except for in regards with gloves (sometimes). Retailers have been buying Public Bank, Tenaga (top two buys YTD), Maybank (fourth highest buy), and Digi (10th buy), and they have been selling Focus Dynamics (5th highest sell) and Press Metal (8th highest sell). Foreign investors' top sells YTD are Tenaga and Public Bank, while Digi and Maybank are in their top 10 list of net sells (based on CGS-CIMB Strategy report for the week of 29 March to 2 April 2021).

Important disclaimer: Any views expressed are for informational and discussion purposes only. None of this information is intended as, and must not be understood as, a source of advice. It is imperative that you always do your own research and that you make any decisions based on your personal situation and your own personal understanding.