Foreign funds sell RM299mil of Malaysian shares

Based on preliminary data from Bursa which excluded off-market deals, the net amount disposed by foreign investors last week amounted to RM299.1mil net, the largest since the global stock market rout in early February. MIDF Research

KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign funds reduced their exposure in Malaysian equities last week, ending the three straight weeks of foreign buying after a dramatic week of events coming from the US, according to MIDF Research.

“Based on preliminary data from Bursa which excluded off-market deals, the net amount disposed by foreign investors last week amounted to RM299.1mil net, the largest since the global stock market rout in early February,” MIDF said in its weekly fund flow report.

Yesterday recorded the highest foreign selling of RM151.7mil net amid fears of the US’ planned import tax on steel and aluminium.

Local metal players such as Press Metal Aluminium Holdings was bad badly hit, leading decliners with a 9.1% decline.

It was notable that other Asian peers, namely Thailand, Indonesia and Taiwan also experienced the heaviest attrition yesterday.

MIDF said this coincided with the FBM KLCI’s 0.3% advance to close at 1,848 points as it tracked gains from global markets as fears of a global trade war waned after US allies put pressure on President Trump’s protectionist policies.

“Global investors were back in selling mode thereafter until Friday but at a relatively measurable pace of below RM100mil.

“We reckon that the outflows abated partly due to North Korea’s possible denuclearisa- tion plans and its conciliatory gesture to hold talks with the US,” it said.

On a year-to-date basis, foreigners have accumulated RM1.91bil worth of local equities, higher than the RM1.69bil acquired during the same period last year.

MIDF noted that foreigners were still active as the foreign average daily trade value (ADTV) stood above the RM1bil mark for the 10th straight week at RM1.12bil.

Although the retail ADTV declined by 4% last week, the retail market is deemed to be still healthy as the retail ADTV remains above the RM1bil mark for the third week running.

Last week, Tenaga Nasional Bhd registered the highest net money inflow of RM30.86mil.

Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd recorded the second highest net money inflow of RM16.82mil.

CIMB Group saw the third money inflow of RM10.66mil.

On the other hand, Maybank saw the largest net money outflow of RM56.78mil.

Public Bank recorded the second largest net money outflow of RM14.12mil and AirAsia registered the largest net money outflow of RM7.78mil. highest net