Fund Flow Foreign funds bought RM354.4 million of Malaysian equity last week, says MIDF Research

by **Cals** Mon 13 Apr 2015, 19:20

Fund Flow
Foreign funds bought RM354.4 million of Malaysian equity last week, says MIDF Research

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By Surin Murugiah / The Edge Financial Daily | April 13, 2015 : 9:37 AM MYT

KUALA LUMPUR (April 13): Foreign funds continued the gradual rebuilding of their Malaysian equity portfolio, and accumulated RM354.4 million last week, the highest in three weeks, according to [size=14]MIDF Research.

In his weekly fund flow report, MIDF Research head Zulkifli Hamzah said foreign investors were net buyers every day last week, except on Thursday.

He said buying was aggressive on Tuesday, when a net amount of RM215.9 million was mopped up.

Zulkifli said it was the seventh highest in a day this year.

“However, the purchases tapered swiftly and the buying mode shifted to first gear in the rest of the week,” he added.

Zulkifli said last week’s purchase reduced further the cumulative net foreign outflow for 2015 to RM3.10 billion.

He explained that in comparison, the cumulative foreign outflow for the entire 2014 was RM6.93 billion.

“We note that the trading activity of foreign investors continued to decline.

“Foreign participation rate (daily average gross purchase and sale) fell for the third consecutive week to RM869 million. It was almost as low as that during the Chinese New Year week,” he said.

Zulkifli said local investors were the main players in the market last week.

He said local institutions offloaded RM204.2 million, the fourth consecutive week of selling.

He said participation rate remained elevated, rising to RM2.1 billion, the highest in a month.

He said local institutions have absorbed RM3.88 billion net so far this year.

Zulkili said that in 2014, they mopped up RM8.18 billion net.

“Retailers continued to sell last week, clearing RM150.2 million.

“In the last four weeks, retailers have sold a cumulative RM502 million.

“Participation rate remained low at only RM728 million. It had been below RM750 million every week in the last four weeks,” he said.

Commenting on the region, Zulkifli said it was a good week for the global equity markets.

He said that for the first time this year, all the indices that we track rose in concert.

“Catalysts for actions in the week emanated mainly from the crude oil market. The proposed takeover of BG Group by Royal Dutch Shell set the tone for the week. On Friday, the market was buoyed after General Electric Co. announced that it is exiting the financial services business and instituting a USD50b stock buyback program.

“In Asia, the Hang Seng rose a massive 7.9%, driven by purchases by mainland Chinese investors. The FBM KLCI rose only 0.5% but the index has risen four weeks in a row now,” he said.

Zulkifli said money flow to Asia remained uninspiring last week.

“The level of conviction was low, as the signals pertaining to the timing of interest rate increase in the U.S stayed fuzzy.

“A favourite destination of international funds is currently Korea. Industry bellweather, Samsung, announced above-expected earnings last Tuesday, and that heightened expectations for the impending result season,” he said.
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