Malaysia: Foreign investors back in selling mode
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia saw the first foreign outflow after four successive weeks of inflow for the week ended Dec 22, according to MIDF Research.
“Based on preliminary data from Bursa which excluded off market trades, the net amount sold by foreign investors on Bursa last week was recorded at RM38.2mil
“This latest weekly net attrition was substantially lower in comparison to the net amount sold in the week ended Nov 17, 2017, recorded at RM297.1mil,” MIDF said in its weekly fund flow report.
It noted that international investors were net sellers in two out of five trading days with Tuesday recording the greatest amount of RM143.9mil since Nov 16.
It is noteworthy that that the foreign net selling on Tuesday was in conformity with other Asian markets namely Thailand, Philipines, India and Taiwan.
On the next day, the global market saw an improvement with net buying by foreign investors following the passing of the new US tax bill.
However, the mild recovery was short-lived as net selling occurred on Thursday but on a reduced level far below RM100mil net.
Due to light foreign net selling last week, the cumulative year-to-date inflow slightly decreased to RM10.16bil from RM10.20bil.
So far out of 51 weeks, there has been only 17 weeks of foreign selling, a figure which is still better compared to 2016 which was over 20 weeks.
MIDF said foreign participation dipped substantially last week as the foreign average daily trade (ADTV) eased by 48.0% to RM733.5mil.
Meanwhile, the retail ADTV staged a slight recovery, increasing by 3.4% to RM934.6mil.
Tenaga Nasional Bhd registered the highest net money inflow of RM28.69mil last week.
IOI Corp Bhd recorded the second highest net money inflow of RM26.1mil while Nestle (M) Bhd saw the third largest net money inflow of RM22.1mil.
On the other hand, United Plantation saw the largest net money outflow of RM12.73mil last week.
Petronas Chemical recorded the second largest net money outflow RM9.12mil during the week under review and F&N Holdings registered the third largest money outflow at RM7.96mil.
Source: https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2017/12/26/foreign-investors-back-in-selling-mode/#QmgyOpw3peQxHU0p.99