KUALA LUMPUR (April 8): Foreign selling of Malaysian equities has hit RM1.21 billion year-to-date as of last week, after the outflow stretched for a sixth consecutive week, with a weekly outflow of RM336 million.

In its weekly fund flow report on Monday, the MIDF Research team said the selling streak was last seen at mid-2023, when foreigners net sold for 12 straight weeks.

“They net sold RM99.4 million on Monday, RM253.4 million on Wednesday and RM132.7 million on Friday, and net bought RM134.3 million on Tuesday and RM15.2 million on Thursday.

“The sectors with the highest net foreign inflows were property (RM104.4 million), construction (RM36.9 million), and healthcare (RM14.6 million), while the sectors that recorded the highest net foreign outflows were financial services (RM417 million), industrial products and services (RM46.0 million), and consumer products and services (RM29.9 million),” it said.

MIDF said that in contrast, local institutions persisted in their net buying trend for the sixth consecutive week, with a net purchase of RM557.4 million.

It said they only net sold RM81.3 million on Tuesday, but were net buyers for the rest of the week, amounting to RM638.7 million.

“Local retailers maintained their net selling stance on Bursa Malaysia for the fourth straight week, disposing RM221.4 million net.

“They net sold every day last week, and have been net selling for 21 consecutive trading days,” it said.

On participation, MIDF said the average daily trading volume declined across all investor classes last week.

It said foreign investors saw a dip of 15.7%, while retail investors saw a decline of 0.5% and institutional investors a drop of 1.8%.

Commenting on the international scenario, MIDF said US manufacturing experienced growth for the first time in 18 months in March, with a notable rebound in production and increased new orders.

However, it said factory employment remained subdued due to significant lay-off activity, and input prices rose.

“Most major markets retreated last week, with 15 out of the 20 indices that we monitor recording declines.

“The FBM KLCI topped the list with a 1.25% growth, followed by the Hang Seng Index (1.1%) and China’s CSI 300 (0.86%).

“Notable decliners were Japan’s Nikkei 225 (3.41%), the PSEi (2.29%), and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (2.27%),” it said.