Net foreign selling halves to RM339m

PETALING JAYA: Offshore investors lessened the pace of net selling on Bursa Malaysia last week, offloading RM339.4 million net of local equities, almost half compared to RM624.7 million sold in the preceding week – marking the 20th consecutive week of foreign net selling.

“So far in 2020, foreign investors have sold RM16.7 billion net on Bursa. In comparison with the other six Asian markets we track, Malaysia still has the fourth smallest foreign net outflow on a year-to-date basis,“MIDF Research said in its fund flow report yesterday.

As markets reopened on Monday last week, international investors took out RM12.7 million net of local equities, which was a similar trend for all Southeast Asian markets on fear of the global surge of Covid-19 cases over the weekend, dampening hope on a faster economic recovery.

MIDF noted that the foreign net outflow occurred on every day last week, with Wednesday recording the highest foreign net outflow at a tune of RM142.1 million which coincided with the decline in Malaysia’s Producer Price Index in May for the third consecutive month. However, foreign net outflow started to subside on Thursday and Friday with the lowest foreign net outflow of the week on Friday at a tune RM8.4 million.

The lower foreign net selling on Thursday and Friday was probably due to positive news flow on the sharp rebound of the local manufacturing sector with a Purchasing Managers’ Index score of 51.0 in June, and optimistic economic data from the US and China. As a result, the KLCI Index closed higher by about 4.3% to 1,552.6 points last week.