Fund Flow Foreign funds sold RM762.9m Malaysian equity last week, says MIDF Research

• Fund Flow
  

Foreign funds sold RM762.9m Malaysian equity last week, says MIDF Research

By Surin Murugiah  / theedgemarkets.com   | January 18, 2016 : 9:42 AM MYT    [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 18): Foreign investors sold Malaysian equity for the second week running last week, according to MIDF Research.
In his weekly fund flow report today, MIDF Research head Zulkifli Hamzah said it was as bad as the week before but as foreign liquidity overhang in the local market is low, the intensity of the selldown was not as severe as that seen last year.
He said the total amount of equities sold last week amounted to to RM762.9 million.
“This is estimated based on transactions in the open market and excluded off market deals. It was RM613.7 million the week before.
“Foreign funds were net sellers throughout the week but the amount did not exceed RM200 million during any of the days.

“Foreigners have been net sellers for seven consecutive trading days now,” he said.
 
Zulkifli said again, selling was heavy on Monday when an amount of RM186 million was offloaded.
 
He said the rate of attrition was relatively unchanged on Tuesday but receded on Wednesday, adding that selling picked up pace again on Thursday and by Friday, the offloaded amount had surged to RM190.3 million, the highest for the week.
 
He said that year-to-date, foreigners have sold RM1.38 billion net.
 
“That reduces the estimated amount of foreign liquidity overhang in the market to only RM7 billion, based on our estimate.
 
“Foreign participation rate (average daily volume) rose last week but the amount remained below the RM1 billion mark at RM990 million.
 
“In comparison, participation averaged RM1.05 billion per day last year,” he said.
 
Zulkifli said local investors supported the market last week.
 
He said local institutions and retailers absorbed RM665.1 million and RM97.8 million respectively.
 
“In 2015, local institutions absorbed a whopping RM21.2 billion, and the market support seems to be continuing in the first two weeks of the year.
 
“The participation rate of local institutions remained elevated at RM2.03 billion.
 
He said except for the last week of 2015, retailers have been conspicuously nibbling in the market in the last six weeks.
 
Zulkifli said retail participation was healthy last week at RM905 million.