Foreign selling on Bursa eases for second straight week

PETALING JAYA: International investors continued to dispose of stocks listed on Bursa Malaysia for the fourth consecutive week, according to MIDF Research.

However, the research house said it has been the second week in a row that foreign selling levels have eased, declining from RM82.9 million net in the previous week to RM54.2 million net last week.

MIDF said it was the second lowest attrition this year after the one in August, which totalled RM48.5 million net.

“The estimates made are based on transactions in the open market which excluded off-market deals. Except on Monday and Friday when there was marginal foreign buying that was below RM30 million on each day, selling dominated the rest of the trading week,” the research house said in its fund flow report yesterday.

It added that there was a notable peak in foreign selling on Friday at RM73 million net.

MIDF also noted that last week’s foreign sell-off was in conformity with what was seen in Southeast Asian peers.

Last week’s attrition reduced the cumulative net foreign inflow into shares listed on Bursa to RM9.47 billion net, slightly lower than the peak of RM11.08 billion in September.

Nonetheless, MIDF said, the cumulative amount is still impressive compared to the RM3.01 billion and RM19.5 billion recorded in 2016 and 2015, respectively.

Foreign participation was muted with the foreign average daily trade value (ADTV) rising only 5% to RM795 million from RM757 million. In contrast, the retail ADTV rebounded, increasing 15.2% to a level closer to RM1 billion.