This frequency of weekly net selling was last seen in May 2021, noted the research firm in its weekly fund flow report today.
It added that April’s weak Industrial Production Index, which recorded its first year-on-year decline (-3.3%) in 20 months, may have exacerbated the outflow.
Similar to the week before, MIDF Research said foreigners net sold every day last week, and they have been net selling for nine consecutive trading days.
They net sold RM99.1 million on Tuesday, RM98.2 million on Wednesday, RM159.9 million on Thursday and RM86.7 million on Friday.
Bursa Malaysia had a four-day trading week last week in conjunction with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s birthday celebration on Monday.
“The top three sectors that saw net foreign inflows last week were transportation and logistics (RM37.0 million), construction (RM12.2 million) and technology (RM0.3 million).
“Sectors with the most outflows were financial services (RM102.5 million), consumer products and services (RM78.2 million) and industrials (RM65.3 million),” it said.
Year-to-date, foreigners have net sold Malaysian equities for 17 out of 23 weeks, totalling RM3.4 billion.
MIDF Research added that other Asian markets which saw fund outflows by foreigners were the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Meanwhile, local institutional investors remained net buyers of Malaysian stocks with a total of RM333.7 million.
“They net bought every day, the bulk of it on Thursday and Friday at RM151 million and RM100 million, respectively.
“Year-to-date, they have been net buyers for 17 of 23 weeks with a total of RM3.12 billion,” it said.
At the same time, local retailers continued their net buying activities for the third consecutive week at RM110.2 million and only net sold RM13.3 million on Friday but were net buyers for the other trading days.
“Year-to-date, retailers have been net buyers for 12 out of 23 weeks with a total of RM283.6 million,” it said.
In terms of participation, MIDF Research noted that there was a decline in average daily trading volume (ADTV) across the board among retail investors (14.9%), local institutions (19.9%) and foreign investors (55.2%).