Foreign funds sell RM300m shares in Sept

Overseas investors sold Malaysian stocks for a second straight month in September, as the benchmark index capped its biggest quarterly slump in almost three years.

Foreign funds unloaded RM300 million (US$94 million) of Malaysian shares last month, according to data on the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange’s website. Some RM3.8 billion flowed out of equities in August, the most since at least October 2009, after four consecutive months of inflows.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index slumped 12 percent last quarter, the most since the three months ended December 2008, as concerns Europe’s debt crisis will hurt economic growth eroded demand for emerging-market assets. The ringgit completed its biggest quarterly loss since 1998.

Malaysian stocks were cut on Sept. 28 to “equal weight” from “overweight” at Morgan Stanley, which cited earnings revisions and weaker industrial output. Government data on Sept. 9 showed industrial production contracted 0.6 percent from a year earlier, compared with the 2.4 percent growth economists in a Bloomberg survey had forecast.

Before the sell-off, overseas investors piled into Malaysia’s stock market, betting on the nation’s efforts to bolster economic growth. About RM6.7 billion of foreign funds flowed into Malaysian stocks from April to July, according to stock exchange data.

Prime Minister Najib’s government unveiled an economic transformation program in September 2010 that was aimed at attracting investment. The plan includes US$444 billion of programs this decade ranging from mass rail to nuclear power, led by private and government-linked companies. On July 8, Najib broke ground on a RM48 billion mass rail network aimed at easing traffic congestion in Kuala Lumpur. -- Bloomberg