However, the RM120.6 million worth of Malaysian equities sold by foreign investors last week was less than half of the RM320.3 million outflows of the previous week.
In its weekly Fund Flow Report today, MIDF Research, part of MIDF Amanah said foreign investors were net sellers each day of the week except on Tuesday and Friday when they net bought RM13.7 million and RM11.4 million, respectively.
It said the heaviest outflow observed was on Monday at RM79.4 million.
“Local institutions remained net buyers for two consecutive weeks after buying RM29.9 million last week. They were net buyers on Monday at RM50.2 million and turned net sellers on Tuesday at RM22.2 million,” it added.
“They turned into net buyers again on Wednesday and Thursday to the tune of RM5.32 million and RM600,000 respectively, before turning net sellers at the end of the week at RM4 million,” noted MIDF Research.
Meanwhile, local retailers were on a net buying spree last week except on Friday when they net sold RM7.4 million, with the highest net buying recorded on Wednesday amounting to RM55.9 million.
“To date, international funds have been net buyers for 17 out of the 27 weeks of 2022, with a total net inflow of RM5.95 billion. Local institutions were net sellers for 20 out of 27 weeks, with a total net outflow of RM7.78 billion,” the research arm of the investment banking institution noted.
It added that the local retailers have been net buyers for 18 out of 27 weeks of 2022, registering a net inflow of RM1.83 billion.
On a sectoral basis, MIDF Research said industrial products and services, technology, and transportation sectors saw the highest net outflow last week with RM44.6 million, RM42.5 million and RM32.6 million, respectively,
The top three sectors with the highest net inflow were financial services, at RM20.6 million, healthcare at RM16.4 million and plantation at RM8.8 million.
“In terms of participation, foreign investors, institutional investors, and retailers saw declines in the average daily trade value of 18.2%, 21% and 14.2%, respectively,” the research house said.
On Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) move to raise the overnight policy rate by 25 basis points (bps) to 2.25% last week, MIDF Research said it expects another 25 bps hike in the second half of 2022 supported by stronger-than-expected domestic demand.
MIDF Research believes the focus of BNM’s monetary policy setting would be to ensure a sustainable recovery of Malaysia’s economy.
“We are anticipating further policy normalisation to be carried out in the September 2022 Monetary Policy Committee meeting with another 25 bps hike,” it said.
MIDF Research said last week, foreign investors remained net sellers of Asian equities for the fifth straight week but at a slower pace, more than halving the amount that they had disposed of the week prior.
Based on the provisional aggregate data for the seven Asian exchanges tracked, investors classified as ‘foreign’ sold US$271 million net last week, substantially lower in comparison with the net selling of US$3.01 billion in the previous week.
“Out of the 27 trading weeks so far in 2022, there have been 20 weeks of net selling and seven weeks of net buying,” it said.
For the week ended July 8, 2022, only South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan posted net foreign inflows out of the seven Asian exchanges, MIDF Research noted.