Fund Flow Foreign funds bought RM783.4m Malaysian equity last week, says MIDF Research

• Fund Flow
  

Foreign funds bought RM783.4m Malaysian equity last week, says MIDF Research

By Surin Murugiah / theedgemarkets.com   | October 12, 2015 : 11:36 AM MYT

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 12): After selling for two straight weeks, investors classified as “foreign” turned net purchasers on Bursa last week, according to MIDF Research.
In his weekly fund flow today, MIDF Research head Zulkifli Hamzah said foreign funds bought RM783.4 million net in the open market (ie excluding off-market deals), reversing the RM599 million net sale in the preceding week.
He said the RM783.4 million amassed last week was the highest since May 2014.
Zulkifli said the week opened with foreign funds selling on Monday, reflecting a spillover of the momentum from the Friday before.
He said the reversal in the flow started on Tuesday, and buying continued for the rest of the week.
“On Wednesday, the net purchase amount hit RM290.1 million, the fourth highest in a day this year.
“On Friday, it surged to RM384.9 million, the second highest this year after the RM482.4 million mopped up on Sept 17,” he said.
Zulkifli said that for 2015, last week’s heavy buying reduced the cumulative net foreign outflow to RM17.6 billion, compared with the RM6.9 billion outflow for the entire 2014.
He said despite the high tide last week, he believed the overhang of foreign liquidity in the market is still very low with foreign shareholding on Bursa at only about 21%–22% of total market capitalisation.
“The growth in foreign participation rate accelerated to 18%, from 16.3% the week before. The average daily gross volume remained elevated at RM1.35 billion, compared with RM1.14 billion the week before.
“On Wednesday, gross volume hit RM2.08 billion, the fifth highest in a day this year and only the sixth time that the RM2 billion threshold had been broken. Volume was only RM1.43 billion on Friday, despite the high net add,” he said.
Zulkfili said that local institutions sold RM595.8 million last week, the highest amount offloaded this year.
He said participation rate also peaked for the year at RM2.88 billion, adding that average volume had surpassed the RM2 billion mark in the last nine consecutive weeks.
“Meanwhile, retailers turned aggressive net sellers, selling RM187.6 million on rising but yet moderate average volume of RM849 million.
“The early birds are cashing out,” he said.