Foreign funds embark on profit taking after 6 weeks of continuous net buying on Bursa

FOREIGN investors took profit last week (Sept 23-27) after six straight weeks of net buying. They net sold every treading session of last week which culminated in a net outflow of -RM527.0 mil.

“The strongest net selling was observed on Wednesday (Sept 25) at -RM165.5 mil,” observed MIDF Research in its weekly fund flow report.

“The sectors with the highest net foreign outflows were financial services (-RM193.7 mil), technology (-RM137.3 mil) and consumer products & services (-RM50.7 mil).”

The sectors that recorded the highest net foreign inflows were utilities (RM40.9 mil), industrial products & services (RM24.8 mil) and healthcare (RM8.2 mil)

On the contrary, local institutions continued to support the local bourse with net purchases of RM240.3 mil last week, marking their third consecutive week of net buying. They net bought every trading session of last week.

They were joined by local retailers who mopped up RM286.7 mil last week after having net sold for two straight weeks. They too, net bought every trading session of last week.

The average daily trading volume (ADTV) declined across all investor classes last week. Foreign investors recorded a decline of -34.0% while local institutional investors and local retail investors posted declines of -1.2% and -7.6% respectively.

In comparison with another four Southeast Asian markets tracked by MIDF Research, only the Philippines recorded net foreign fund inflows totalling US$190.4 mil last week, its seventh consecutive week of foreign fund buying.

Foreign investors took profit in Indonesia by net selling -US$222.9 mil after 13 consecutive weeks of net buying while Thailand saw net outflow of -US$22.2 mil last week after four straight weeks of net buying

Likewise, Vietnam also saw foreign funds leaving its stock market at -US$19.5 mil after they briefly net bought the week before.

The top three stocks with the highest net money inflow from foreign investors last week were Tenaga Nasional Bhd (RM142.2 mil), Public Bank Bhd (RM69.9 mil) and RHB Bank Bhd (RM37.,2 mil). – Sept 30, 2024