FOREIGN investors continued their buying spree on Bursa Malaysia for the fifth consecutive week with an elevated net inflow of RM615.5 mil for the week ended Aug 19 or +36.3% higher than the RM451.7 mil that they had net bought in the previous week.

In fact, last week saw net buying activities by the foreign funds during every trading session, according to MIDF Research.

“The amount of net inflows recorded was RM120.4 mil on Monday (Aug 15), RM163.9 mil on Tuesday (Aug 16), RM153.3 mil on Wednesday (Aug 17) and RM132.7 mil on Thursday (Aug 18),” observed the research house in its weekly fund flow report.

“Friday (Aug 19) was also a net buying day albeit at a lower rate of RM45.2 mil.”

Meanwhile, the net inflow by foreign funds was offset by net outflow with local institutions continuing to be net sellers every day of last week with a total net weekly met disposal of -RM675.9 mil.

Tuesday (Aug 16) saw the highest net money outflow of -RM193.1 mil. To note, local institutions have been net sellers for the 13^th consecutive day since the week ended Aug 3.

On the bright side, local retailers remained to be net buyers for the second consecutive week with a total net inflow of RM60.4 mil.

They were net buyers from Monday (Aug 15) to Wednesday (Aug 17) but turned net sellers on Thursday (Aug 18) and Friday (Aug 19).

Year-to-date (YTD), international investors have been net buyers for 22 out of the 33 weeks of 2022 with a total net inflow of RM7.72 bil while local institutions were net sellers for 26 out of 33 weeks with a total net outflow of -RM9.48 bil.

Local retailers have been net buyers for 21 out of 33 weeks of 2022. YTD, they have net bought RM1.76 bil.

In terms of participation, there was an increase in average daily trade value (ADTV) among all investor classes – retail investors at +21.3%, institutional investors (+20.7%) and foreign investors (+11.7%).

In comparison with another three Southeast Asian markets tracked by MIDF Research last week, Thailand again posted the highest net inflow by foreign funds at US$681.04 mil followed by Indonesia (US$214.59 mil), Malaysia (US$137.76 mil) and the Philippines (US$57.09 mil).

The top three stocks with the highest net money inflow last week were Tenaga Nasional Bhd (RM6.25 mil), RHB Bank Bhd (RM3.42 mil) and Hong Leong Bank Bhd (RM2.78 mil). – Aug 22, 2022