KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 21 — Foreign investors turned net sellers last week to the tune of RM272.0 million, a reversal from the net inflow of RM425.62 million in the previous week due to a shortened trading week for the 15th General Election (GE15), said MIDF Research.

The market was closed last Friday to enable voters to cast their vote in GE15.

The research house said the net selling started on Tuesday which saw the highest net outflow for the week at RM185.5 million and the trend continued with net outflows of RM79.9 million on Wednesday and RM62.2m on Thursday.

"In contrast, local institutions were net buyers last week with a total net inflow of RM152.5 million with the bulk of it recorded on Tuesday at RM149.9 million and Wednesday at RM39.2 million,” it said in a note today.

Meanwhile, Monday and Thursday saw local institutions net selling RM34.3 million and RM2.3 million worth of equities, respectively.

MIDF Research said local retailers turned to net buyers last week with a total weekly net inflow of RM119.6 million, a positive reversal in comparison with the RM173.6 million net sold in the week prior.

"Retailers started off the week by net selling -RM21.3 million worth of equities. They then turned into net buyers for the rest of the week with net inflows of RM35.6 million on Tuesday, RM40.7 million on Wednesday, and RM64.6 million on Thursday, the highest for the week,” it said.

It also said international funds have been net buyers for 26 out of the 46 weeks this year, with a total net inflow of RM5.91 billion.

"Local institutions were net sellers for 31 out of 46 weeks, with a total net outflow of RM7.99 billion and local retailers had been net buyers for 29 out of 46 weeks of 2022,” it added.

Year-to-date, it said they had been net buyers at RM2.08 billion.

In terms of participation, the research house noted that there was a deterioration in terms of average daily trade value (ADTV) by retailer investors (8.0 per cent), institutional investors (3.3 per cent) and foreign investors (0.1 per cent). — Bernama