THE turbulence on Wall Street caused ripple effects in Malaysia with foreign investors making net disposal of -RM768.4 mil from the local bourse last week (Aug 5-9) after a brief net inflow of RM242.1 mil the week prior.

They net sold equities on Bursa Malaysia during every trading session last week with the largest net outflows posted on Monday (Aug 5) and Thursday (Aug 8) at -RM336.1 mil and -RM226.7 mil respectively.

“There were only three sectors that were net bought by foreign investors last week,” MIDF Research pointed out in its weekly fund flow report. “These were telecommunication & media (RM10.0 mil), healthcare (RM8.6 mil) and plantation (RM7.1 mil).”

The top three sectors that incurred net selling by foreign investors were consumer products & services (-RM151.8 mil), property (-RM149.5 mil) and technology (-RM120.2 mil).

On the contrary, local institutions went on a shopping spree last week by mopping up net purchases amounting to RM1.19 bil.

“They net bought every day last week with the largest net buying amount seen on Monday (Aug 5) at RM545.8 mil,” observed MIDF Research.

“This was the largest net buy amount in a single day since 2018; their highest net buying position this year stood at RM846.3 mil on Feb 6.”.

Meanwhile, local retailers net sold -RM424.6 mil last week with stock disposal occurring during every trading session of the week. Monday (Aug 5) saw the heaviest net selling to the tune of -RM209.7 mil.

The average daily trading volume (ADTV) showed an increase across all investor classes. Foreign investors saw the highest surge by +47.4%, followed by local retailers at +47.3% and local institutional investors at +37.7%.

In comparison with another four Southeast Asian markets tracked by MIDF Research, Indonesia bucked the trend of foreign fund exit with a seventh consecutive week of net foreign inflow at US$69.5 mil, followed by Thailand with US$11.8 mil after a brief net disposal a week earlier.

However, foreign funds net sold -US$156.8 mil worth of Vietnamese equities for the second straight week with the Philippines also recorded a similar outcome after foreign investors offloaded -US$29.0 mil in its second consecutive week of net outflow.

The top three stocks with the highest net money inflow from foreign investors last week were Public Bank Bhd (RM156.5 mil), Tenaga Nasional Bhd (RM111.5 mil) and Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd (RM25.4 mil) - Aug 12, 2024.

https://focusmalaysia.my/foreign-funds-on-selling-spree-with-massive-rm770m-of-net-outflow-from-bursa-last-week/