KUALA LUMPUR, June 27 — Local institutions turned into net sellers of local equities again last week after two consecutive weeks of net buying, albeit at a marginal outflow pace of RM7.9 million, MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd (MIDF Research) said.

In its weekly Fund Flow Report today, the research house said the only days that saw inflows from local institutions were on Wednesday and Friday to the tune of RM146.1 million and RM20.3 million, respectively.

“Meanwhile, local retailers continued to be net buyers last week with net buying of RM24.5 million today, RM43.4 million on Wednesday, and RM36.6 million on Thursday.

“As such, the week ended with the local retailers supporting the market with a net buy of RM69.4 million for the week,” it said.

Year-to-date, local retailers and foreign investors have been net buyers with total net inflows of RM1.64 billion and RM6.45 billion, respectively.

Local institutions have been net sellers for 20 out of 25 trading weeks with a total net outflow of RM8.09 billion.

“In terms of participation, retail investors, institutional investors, and foreign investors have all recorded weekly declines in average daily trade value (ADTV) at -15.0 per cent, -5.9 per cent and -48.0 per cent, respectively,” it said.

MIDF Research said foreign investors continued to net sell Asian equities for the week ended June 24 but at a slower pace, nearly halving from the net selling in the week prior.

It said based on the provisional aggregate data for the seven Asian exchanges, the investors classified as “foreign” net sold US$4.29 billion (RM18 billion) last week compared with US$7.67 billion net sold in the previous week.

Out of the 25 trading weeks in 2022, there had been seven weeks of net buying and 18 weeks of net selling, it said.

Last week, all seven Asian exchanges recorded net foreign outflows with massive outflows in India at US$1.84 billion, South Korea at US$998.5 million and Taiwan at US$799.4 million, respectively.

“We saw strong net selling on Monday which amounted to US$2.20 billion mainly due to the strong outflows in both India and South Korea at US$1.10 billion and US$634.5 million, respectively.

“Investors then turned into net buyers on Tuesday which saw net buying of US$317.0 million, driven by the strong inflow in Taiwan at US$695.5 million while Thursday saw the lowest foreign fund outflow,” it said.

The net selling added up to US$801.1 million as all exchanges saw outflows except for Malaysia which saw net buying of US$1.14 million.

Foreign investors had turned into net buyers again at the end of the week to the tune of US$58.4 million following the strong inflow in South Korea amounting to US$268.6 million, which was last seen on June 16.

Foreign funds left Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and India every trading day last week.

MIDF Research said Bursa Malaysia continued to see an outflow last week, albeit at a slower pace.

“Accordingly, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) saw a slight recovery despite ending below the 1,500 mark again on Friday at 1,436.70,” it said.

Foreign investors were net sellers again last week particularly on Monday and Wednesday, which saw net outflows of RM17.2 million and RM189.5 million, respectively.

“Before the heavy selling on Wednesday, they had net bought RM133.7 million worth of Malaysian equities on Tuesday.

“While we saw a return to net inflow on Thursday and Friday, amounting to RM5.0 million and RM6.5 million respectively, it was not enough to turn the tide for the week.

“As a result, the week ended with a net outflow of RM61.5 million by foreign investors,” it said. — Bernama