Fifth week of selling on Bursa
KUCHING: International funds continued to withdraw shares listed on Bursa for the fifth uninterrupted week, albeit at a slower pace.
BasedondatafromBursa,foreign funds sold RM80.3 million net of local equities last week. Analysts at MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd ( MIDF Research) said this was one third of the amount disposed in the preceding week.
“Foreign funds started the week by selling off RM83.1 million net on Monday despite the 90- day ceasefire over the trade war between Beijing and Washington,” it said in its analysis yesterday.
“This bucked the trend of other regional markets such as South Korea and Taiwan which experienced massive inflows following the latest international trade development.
“However, offshore investors turned net buyers as they bought RM76.1 million and RM69.9 million on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively amidst the advance in Brent crude oil price to US$ 62 per barrel ahead of the OPEC meeting on Thursday.
“This coincided with the ringgit’s 0.45 per cent appreciation to its highest level in more than a month of US dollar of RM4.1465.”
Following the arrest of Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer, Asian markets including Malaysia skidded and prompted investors to retreat to the sidelines.
As such, Malaysia saw a foreign net outflow of RM59.9 million on Thursday. Sentiment on Friday remained sour with foreign investors selling RM83.1 million net on Bursa as the OPEC meeting did not result in any production cuts. Nonetheless, OPEC and Russia later agreed to reduce oil production by removing 1.2 million barrels per day.
Last week’s foreign net outflow brings the year-to- date outflow from Malaysia to RM10.74 billion or US$ 2.66 billion. Although this amount offsets last year’s net inflow, it is not as high compared to the other two Asean peers we track namely, Thailand and Indonesia which have seen yeartodate outfl ows larger than US$ 3 billion.
The participation rate amongst the various group of investors saw a decline across the board. The average daily traded value of foreign investors registered the largest weekly drop of 45.5 per cent after declining to RM1.11 billion but is still deemed healthy.
Genting Malaysia Berhad registered the highest net money infl ow of RM19.71 million last week, followed by Tenaga Nasional Berhad in second place with RM9.74 million and Hong Leong Financial Group Berhad in third with RM9.66 million inflow.
Meanwhile, Petronas Chemicals Group Berhad saw the largest net money outflow of RM43.77 million last week. Public Bank Berhad recorded the second largest net money outflow RM6.38 million during the week under review, while Top Glove Corporation Berhad registered the third largest net money outflow of RM4.93 million.