Despite it being a short week, with Christmas Day falling on a Monday, they bought RM85.2 million worth of shares on Wednesday and another RM187.9 million on Thursday for a total of RM273.1 million worth of equities.

In the same week, the foreign funds unloaded a total of RM107.8 million worth of shares on Tuesday and Friday, for a net purchase of RM165.3 million for the week, according to MIDF Research.

The strong interest in Malaysian equities among foreign investors was sparked off by the US Federal Reserve’s mid-December policy projections indicating significant rate cuts for the new year, the research house said.

The top gainers were technology, which raked in RM213.1 million in new investments from foreign institutions, followed by energy with RM45 million and industrial products and services with RM37 million.

On the other hand, financial services, healthcare and construction were the top losers.

The financial services sector saw a RM93.5 million outflow, healthcare lost RM59.8 million and construction was down RM27.8 million.

Meanwhile, local institutions continued to unload their holdings for the second straight week, letting go of RM189.6 million worth of equities, 77.7% more than the previous week.

Local retail investors bought RM44.1 million worth of equities for the week but sold RM19.8 million worth of shares during the week.

During the week, there was an 11.6% increase in average daily trading volume among local institutions, while local retailers and foreign investors saw declines of 4.3% and 22% respectively.