KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 19): Foreign selling of local equities on Bursa Malaysia widened to RM186.2 million in the holiday-shortened week ended Sept 15, about four times the net outflow of RM42.49 million in the prior week.

In its weekly fund flow report on Monday (Sept 19), the MIDF Research team said the net selling by foreign investors probably stemmed from higher-than-expected inflation data in the US prompting investors to expect another aggressive rate hike by the US Federal Reserve.

“Foreign investors were net buyers last Monday at RM47.5 million, before turning into net sellers last Tuesday onwards.

“The bulk of the outflow was seen last Thursday at RM153.8 million, while the amounts of outflows recorded were RM22.4 million last Tuesday and RM57.5 million last Wednesday,” it said.

MIDF said local institutions, which briefly net bought RM91.3 million worth of equities in the previous week after eight weeks of net selling, turned into net sellers yet again last week, albeit at a much lower rate of RM4.7 million.

It said they were net sellers last Monday to Wednesday.

“The net outflow reported amounted to RM35.2 million last Monday, RM40.8 million last Tuesday and RM12.6 million last Wednesday.

“Local institutions turned into net buyers after net buying RM84 million last Thursday, before the market took a break last Friday,” it said.

The research house said local retailers turned into net buyers again at RM190.8 million after net selling RM48.8 million in the previous week.

“Starting the week with net selling of RM12.3 million worth of equities, they then net bought RM63.2 million last Tuesday, RM70.1 million last Wednesday, and RM69.9 million last Thursday.

“To date, international investors were net buyers for 24 out of 37 weeks of 2022, with a total net inflow of RM7.93 billion,” it said.

MIDF said local institutions were net sellers for 29 out of 37 weeks, with a total net outflow of RM9.91 billion.

It said local retailers were net buyers for 24 out of 37 weeks of 2022.

“Year-to-date, they have net bought RM1.98 billion.

“In terms of participation, there was an increase in average daily trade value across all investor classes at 14.7% for retail investors, 5.1% for institutional investors, and 58.3% for foreign investors,” it said.

Touching on international markets, MIDF said Wall Street wrapped up its worst week since June 2022.

It said the Dow Jones declined by 4.1% last week to 30,822.42, the S&P 500 lost 4.8% to 3,873.33, and the Nasdaq dropped about 5.5% to 11,448.40.

“Of the 16 exchanges that we track, all were in the red except for Singapore’s Straits Times Index that gained 0.16%.

“Among the top decliners, the S&P 500 lost 4.77%, Dow Jones declined by 4.13%, and China’s Shenzhen was down by 3.94%,” it said.