KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 31): Foreign funds reversed their selling trend, and acquired RM292.67 million of Malaysian equities last week, from net sale of RM68.22 million the prior week.

In its weekly fund flow report on Monday (Oct 31), the MIDF Research team said foreign funds had been net sellers for seven weeks, before turning net buyers last week.

It said foreign investors were net buyers every day last week, with the largest inflow seen last Thursday at RM124.90 million.

It said inflows stood at RM51.84 million last Tuesday, RM82.36 million last Wednesday, and RM33.57 million last Friday.

MIDF said the top three sectors that saw net inflows last week were financial services at RM246.2 million, telecommunications and media at RM60.8 million, and consumer products and services at RM37.4 million.

Meanwhile, it said the top three sectors with net outflows were plantation at RM35.40 million, construction at RM31.70 million, and transportation and logistics at RM19.3 million.

“On the contrary, local institutions turned net sellers after five weeks of net buying.

“They net sold every trading day last week, resulting in net selling of RM195.89 million.

“The heaviest outflow was at RM99.15 million last Thursday."

MIDF said they also net sold RM15.18 million last Tuesday, RM19.59 million last Wednesday, and RM61.97 million last Friday.

“Meanwhile, local retailers remained net sellers at RM96.77 million.

“They net sold for three consecutive days, before briefly turning net buyers last Friday,” it said.

The research house said the net selling amount was RM36.66 million last Tuesday, RM62.76 million last Wednesday, and RM25.75 last Thursday, before net buying of RM28.40 million last Friday.

MIDF said tnternational funds were net buyers for 25 out of 43 weeks of 2022, with a total net inflow of RM6.03 billion.

It said local institutions were net sellers for 30 out of 43 weeks, with a total net outflow of RM8.16 billion.

Local retailers were net buyers for 27 out of 43 weeks of 2022.

Year to date, they are net buyers at RM2.12 billion, said MIDF.

The research house said that in terms of participation, there was a decline in average daily trade value among foreign investors by 18.96%.

It said there were increases for local retailers by 8.77% and institutions by 4.81%.

Commenting on international markets, MIDF said benchmark indices on Wall Street surged to monthly highs last week.

It said the Dow grew 5.72%, while the S&P 500 was up 3.95%.

It said the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index rose 2.24%

“The US economy snapped two straight quarters of contraction, which saw it expand by 2.6% quarter-on-quarter on an annualised basis.

“Things were not as rosy for Chinese markets due to the exodus of foreign funds that came after President Xi Jinping tightened his grip on China with a new decision-making team comprising those aligned to him politically,” it said.