As sentiments remained weak due to the US banking sector challenges, it said foreign funds recorded net selling every day of the week, with the highest amount recorded on Tuesday at RM251.3 million, followed by RM99.7 million on Thursday and RM90.3 million on Friday.

“Foreign investors have been net sellers for 13 trading days since March 1. They have net sold RM1.78 billion year-to-date,” it noted.

According to the research firm, the sectors that saw net foreign inflows were construction (RM67.9 million), technology (RM13.2 million), and transportation and logistics (RM7.8 million), while sectors that saw net foreign outflows were financial services (RM359.5 million), among others.

MIDF Research said local institutions continued to support domestic equities, net buying for the third consecutive week.

“They net bought RM565.7 million, the highest weekly amount in 2023 and the highest since the week ended Dec 9, 2022. Local institutions were net buyers every day, the strongest seen on Friday at RM187.7 million.

“As opposed to foreign investors, they have been net buyers every day since March 1. They have net bought RM1.76 billion of equities, with eight out of 11 weeks net buying,” it noted.

In terms of participation, the research firm said there was an increase in average daily trading volume (ADTV) among local retailers by 18.4%, local institutions by 40.4%, and foreign investors by 51%.

Meanwhile, the Philippines recorded a weekly net foreign outflow of US$496.9 million (RM2.2 billion) last week, the highest among Asean countries, while outflow from Malaysia narrowed, MIDF said.

This is the Philippines’ sixth consecutive week of net foreign outflows. It posted its biggest trade deficit in five months at US$5.7 billion (RM25.5 billion) while total trade remained in contraction for the second straight month at 2.4% year-on-year (y-o-y) in January.