KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 — Foreign funds continued to remain net sellers exiting Bursa Malaysia last week, with the amount of outflow amounted to RM444.92 million from Monday to Thursday.
This was, however, less than the amount in the corresponding period of the previous week (June 15-18) of RM445.35 million.
On the other hand, local retails and institutions experienced a net buy of RM444.91 million.
Bank Islam chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said there seems to be a risk-off mode in light of the recent spike in the number of new Covid-19 infections in the US.
At the same time, the International Monetary Fund has downgraded their call for global recession from 3.0 per cent, which was made in April, to -4.9 per cent for 2020.
The Chicago-based CBOE Volatility Index also went up to 34.73 points last Friday, signalling market jittery over the latest news on higher Covid-19 infection rates.
Mohd Afzanizam said the main worry would be that it may derail the reopening of the economy which has been taking place since May.
Going forward, he said the markets will be focusing on the extent of the rise in the new Covid-19 cases and how it would evolve, especially in respect to the reopening of the economy.
“The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) data releases have been quite decent and therefore, it has yet to take into account the recent increase. As such, markets participants are expected to remain guarded next week,” he told Bernama today.
He said the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) has corrected quite significantly, given that it has fallen below the 200-day moving average.
“Perhaps, the markets are trying to see whether the recent spike in the number of new Covid-19 infections in the US could derail the reopening of their economy.
“As such, the FBM KLCI is expected to trade within a tight range of between 1,480 and 1,490 points. Thus far, the data points such as the US Composite PMI, which jumped to 46.8 points in June from 37 points in May, have been reasonable,” said Mohd Afzanizam.
Similarly, in the United Kingdom and Eurozone, the Composite PMI rose to 47.6 points (May: 30.0 points) and 47.5 points (May: 31.9 points), respectively, in June.
Additionally, the US initial jobless claims could shed more lights on the state of the economy and the recent that jobless claims were higher than consensus estimates for the week ended June 19. — Bernama
