Foreign Investors sold RM246.32m stocks on Bursa Malaysia

Foreign investors turned net sellers on Bursa Malaysia, selling RM246.32 million for the week ended November 13, said MIDF Research. In its weekly fund flow report today, the MIDF Research team said it was the 24th consecutive week of foreign net selling. 

In a note today, the research house said the expectation of a positive foreign inflow on the back of an expansionary budget did not materialize as the selling momentum on Tuesday outweighed the net inflow on Thursday and Friday.

So far in 2020, foreign investors have sold RM19 billion net on Bursa. In comparison with the other six Asian markets we track, Malaysia still has the fourth-smallest foreign net outflow on a year-to-date basis.

As the market reopened on Monday last week, foreign investors bought RM3.53 million net of local equities, with retailers and local institutions as net buyers and net sellers at RM39.52 million and -RM43.05 million, respectively.

MIDF said as the market reopened on Monday last week, foreign investors acquired RM63.5 million net of local equities. It was also the only day of the week that Bursa experienced a foreign net inflow.

It said last Tuesday, foreign investors reverted to being net sellers in which Bursa recorded a foreign net outflow of RM49.3 million despite Malaysia posting a record high trade surplus of RM20.9 billion in June 2020 as exports rebounded into positive territory for the first time since the movement control order (MCO) period.

However, this was reversed mid-week, as the largest outflow of the week on Tuesday set the tone of the cumulative flow at RM332.97 million and continued on Wednesday at RM7.49 million. Meanwhile, the largest inflow was on Thursday at RM87.25 million,” it said.

So far in 2020, foreign investor's net selling has reached RM23.13 billion worth of equities on Bursa Malaysia. The positive sentiment was short-lived as a new wave of Covid-19 and rising protectionism might hinder countries’ efforts to restart their respective economies. 

MIDF said this coincided with a decline in Malaysia’s Producer Price Index (PPI) for local production by 4% year-on-year in June 2020 to 100.3 and an extension of the three-month loan moratorium for targeted groups last Wednesday as economic recovery was expected to be subdued amid surging Covid-19 cases.

Net buying amounted to RM11.82 billion came from retailers thus far in 2020, while institutions bought to the tune of RM10.94 billion. In terms of participation, the retail investors recorded a weekly increase of 49.17 percent in average daily trade value (ADTV) while foreign investors experienced an increase of ADTV of 83.68 percent and local institutions at ADTV of 61.11 percent. — Bernama 

In comparison with another three Southeast Asian markets that we tracked last week, Malaysia recorded the second-highest foreign net outflow after Indonesia, while Thailand experienced the least foreign net outflow.