Malaysia sees third least foreign selling of RM13.3b YTD among seven Asian countries, says MIDF Research

KUALA LUMPUR (June 1): Malaysia saw the third least foreign selling of RM13.3 billion year to date (YTD) among seven Asian countries as foreign selling of Malaysian equities narrowed to RM663.8 million last week, from RM714.7 million disposed of in the week before, according to MIDF Research.

In his weekly fund flow report on Monday, MIDF Research’s Adam M Rahim said that for the month of May 2020, foreign investors disposed of RM3 billion net, the second highest monthly foreign net outflow so far this year after March.

He said this brings the year-to-date foreign net outflow from Malaysia to RM13.3 billion, still the third smallest foreign net outflow among the seven Asian markets MIDF Research monitors.

“As Bursa reopened from a long weekend, international investors dumped RM362.5 million net of local equities on Wednesday.

“This was the highest foreign net outflow in a day since the middle of March 2020,” he said.

Nevertheless, Adam said retail and local institutional investors mopped up local equities to a tune of more than RM100 million net with strong interest in rubber glove counters, pushing the local bourse 1% higher on the same day.

According to him, offshore investors continued to sell last Thursday but at a slower pace of RM227.1 million net.

Adam said foreign net selling last Friday reduced to a level below RM100 million at RM74.2 million as positivity grew for economies in Asia to gradually reopen from pandemic lockdowns.

He said the local stock barometer followed suit to settle 1% higher at 1,473.3 points, the highest close in more than a month.

Adam said in terms of participation, only foreign investors saw a substantial weekly increase in their average daily traded value (ADTV) to reach RM3.5 billion — the largest weekly ADTV since the week ended June 1, 2018.

Source: TheEdgeMarkets