KUALA LUMPUR (May 23): Foreign investors continued to be net buyers last week but at a slower pace of RM26.15 million — from RM56.9 million the prior week.

In its weekly fund flow on Monday (May 23), the MIDF Research team said local retailers turned net sellers, after five consecutive weeks of being net buyers, with net outflows of RM8.03 million last week.

“Meanwhile, local institutions continued to be net sellers with a net selling position totalling RM18.12 million last week.

“To date, international funds have been net buyers for 16 out of the 20 weeks of 2022, with total net inflows of RM7 billion,” it said.

MIDF said they were net sellers last Tuesday and Wednesday at RM51.97 million and RM10.6 million respectively.

It said local institutions were net buyers last Tuesday and Wednesday to the tune of RM57.68 million and RM13.23 million respectively.

“The highest net selling was recorded last Friday at RM63.07 million, while the smallest net selling happened last Thursday at RM25.96 million.

“They have been net sellers for 17 out of 20 weeks this year. To date, they have sold RM8.11 billion of equities,” it said.

MIDF said local retailers were net sellers last Tuesday to Thursday, with total net selling of RM13.55 million.

The research house said it was exceptional last Friday, whereby local retailers recorded net buying of RM5.52 million for the week.

“In terms of participation, foreign investors saw an increase in average daily trade value by 13.14%.

“Local retailers saw a decline of 1.06%, while local institutions also declined by 0.75%,” it said.

Commenting on global markets, MIDF said China’s economic activities weakened in April 2022, below market expectations.

It said retail sales fell by 11.1% year-on-year (y-o-y), the second straight month of declines (March 2022: -3.5% y-o-y) and even a sharper contraction vis-à-vis market forecast (-6.1% y-o-y).

It said the decline generally reflected reduced consumer spending hit by Covid-19 lockdowns.

It said spending mostly weakened as consumers focused more on buying essential goods.

Meanwhile, it said the US forward-looking leading indicators pointed to a more moderate growth as the Conference Board Leading Economic Index increased at a slower rate of 4.7% y-o-y in April 2022 (March 2022: +6.1% y-o-y).

“According to the Conference Board, several downside risks would cause growth to moderate, which include rising borrowing costs, continued disruption to the supply chain and lockdowns in China,” it said.