Foreign investors sold RM421m net of equities last week

KUALA LUMPUR: Offshore investors pulled out RM421 million last week, marking the fifth straight week of funds outflow, said MIDF Research.

Foreign net selling occurred from last Monday to Thursday, stretching the daily selling spree to 16 days, the longest since the 37-day selling streak from early May to end of June last year.

However, MIDF Research said the foreign fund outflow was less than half of the amount recorded in the preceding week.

It said Malaysia recorded a sizeable foreign net outflow of RM272.3 million last Monday, a level not seen since late November last year.

“Nonetheless, the magnitude of foreign attrition was not as high as its North Asian peers, such as South Korea and Taiwan, which saw foreign net selling levels above RM400 million,” said MIDF Research in its weekly fund flow report yesterday.

“The local bourse fell 0.9 per cent on the same day to 1,664 points, the lowest close so far this year.”

It said the level of foreign net selling dipped to RM60.9 million the next day, following the unexpected rise in United States retail sales in January.

However, the amount withdrawn by offshore investors more than doubled to RM125.6 million on Wednesday.

The outflows slowed again on Thursday with only RM13.4 million net sold.

“The rebound in US business equipment orders rose to the highest in six months, which helped outweigh news of China’s industrial output that hit a 17year low in the first two months,” it said.

MIDF Research said global funds returned on Friday and bought RM51.3 million net, finally snapping the 16-day selling streak on Bursa Malaysia.

This followed Beijing’s pledge to stick to its targeted stimulus with tax cuts beginning next month.

In the first two weeks of this month, foreign funds sold RM1.48 billion net of equities. As such, foreign funds had withdrawn RM1.27 billion net from Malaysia on a year-to-date basis.