Bursa records higher outflow by foreign investors last week

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KUCHING: Malaysian equities saw higher outflow caused by foreign investors exiting the capital market last week  compared to the prior week ending November 25.

The research arm of MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd (MIDF Research) in a report yesterday said net amount sold by foreign investors on Bursa was RM780.5 million last week, higher than the prior week’s figure of RM493.3 million.

“Foreign investors continued to be net sellers throughout the week. There was a spike of  RM487.6 million on Wednesday.

“Besides that, the attrition level ranged between RM150 million to RM30 million with the lowest amount of RM36.2 million recorded on Thursday (December 1),” the research firm said.

On a cumulative figure to December 2, the amount of net-selling from foreign investors has further deepen to minus RM2.5 billion from a peak of net inflow of RM6.47 billion seen in April this year.

However, compared to 2015, MIDF Research said the amount of outflow as of November this year was still considered low as foreign funds sold RM19.5 billion worth of equities on Bursa last year.

It also observed that Malaysian equity has been subject to heavy foreign money attrition particularly since the US election in early November.

“Although the pace of outflow seems to have slowed down in the prior week, foreign attrition of Malaysian equity has spiked up again last week,” it said.

On another note, retail investors continued to be positive last month, maintaining its levels in October.

Nonetheless, there was an outflow of RM37.9 million from retail investors last week.

Local institutional funds were net buyers last week, shoring up a net amount of RM818.4 million.

As for Asian bourses, the money outflow from Asian equities continued last week as global funds made a general retreat for the sixth week in a row.

Nevertheless, the research firm observed the rate of net outflow for the week ended December 2 was lower at less than five hundred million dollars.

For Southeast Asia equities, MIDF Research noted that markets in Thailand and Indonesia continued to experience funds outflow last week.

While Thailand’s net outflow reduced slightly to US$132.5 million last week, Indonesia’s outflow increased to US$237.1 million for the week ended December 2 from US$200.7 million recorded in the prior week ended November 25.