Foreign selling on Bursa rises to RM910.2m last week

PETALING JAYA: Foreign net outflow continued on Bursa to a tune of RM910.2 million net of local equities last week.

MIDF Research said this was the 23rd consecutive week of foreign net selling.

“So far in 2020, foreign investors have sold RM18.8 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 said in its fund flow report today.

Bursa bucked regional trend as it experienced foreign net outflow on every day of last week.

As markets reopened on Monday last week, foreign investors disposed RM110.7 million net of local equities. On Tuesday, the foreign net outflow increased to RM295.8 million following the announcement by the government that movement control order (MCO) could be reimposed as the sporadic Covid-19 cases started to creep up.

Note that the foreign net outflow subsided on Wednesday and Thursday last week at a tune of RM137.3 million and RM23.4 million respectively potentially due to Malaysia’s Leading Index grew 0.6% year-on-year (y-o-y) in May 2020 from a decline of 5.7% y-o-y in April 2020 on Thursday last week.

This was also the first growth since February, signalling a rebound in the economy since MCO. However, foreign investors remained in risk-off mode as US-China ties deteriorated further when the US asked China to close its Houston Consulate in 72 hours on Tuesday last week.

On Friday, Bursa experienced the highest foreign net outflow at a tune of RM342.8 million on mounting geopolitical headwinds as China retaliated by ordering the US to close its consulate in Chengdu, adding greater uncertainty over the Sino-US tensions which might have negative ramifications in the region.

“In comparison to another three South East Asian markets that we tracked last week, Malaysia recorded the highest foreign net outflow while Philippines experienced the least foreign net outflow,” said MIDF.

In terms of participation, the foreign investors experienced a weekly increase in average daily traded value by 0.1% to reach RM1.4 billion which was above the healthy level of RM1.0 billion.

source https://www.thesundaily.my/business/foreign-selling-on-bursa-rises-to-rm9102m-last-week-IE3170390