Foreign investors turn net buyers on Bursa

by **Cals** Tue 04 Mar 2014, 07:29

Foreign investors turn net buyers on Bursa
Posted on 4 March 2014 - 05:39am
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PETALING JAYA: After selling in 19 out of the last 20 weeks, including the last seven consecutive weeks, foreign investors turned net buyer of Malaysian shares in the open market, said MIDF Research.

In a research note yesterday, MIDF said foreign portfolio investors made a net purchase of Malaysian shares in the open market amounting to RM296.2 million last week.

In the preceding 20 weeks, it said, the net sale averaged RM565.3 million.

"The point of reversal was last Thursday when foreign funds bought RM58.1 million net. On Friday, the net purchases surged to RM419.1 million, the highest recorded in one-day since the 8th of May last year, in the aftermath of the general election," it said.

Interestingly, it said, foreign participation rate was still below the RM1 billion mark.

MIDF said average daily foreign participation rate did surge 35% to RM986 million from RM732 million the week before. However, it was still below the RM991 million average per week in 2013.

Indeed, it said foreign participation had exceeded RM1 billion in 25 weeks since the start of 2013.

"Retail investors' optimism also spiked, as reflected by their net purchase amount of RM164.9 million, the highest since mid-November last year. Daily participation rate stayed above the RM1 billion mark for the second consecutive week at RM1.07 billion, compared to RM1.28 billion the week before," it said.

Meanwhile, MIDF Research said local institutional funds are currently aggressively offloading their position and realising profit early in the year in order to meet their dividend targets.

It said local funds sold RM461.1 million net last week, the highest since mid September 2013.

"Participation rate remained elevated at RM2.46 billion, the second highest since August 2013. Indeed, local institution participation had exceeded the RM2 billion mark in the last eight weeks," it said.