KUALA LUMPUR (March 13): Foreign selling of Malaysian equity intensified last week and swelled to RM556.9 million, from RM338.7 million the prior week.

In its weekly fundflow report on Monday (March 13), the MIDF Research Team said the amount was about 64% higher than the amount net sold during the week ended March 3.

The research house said every trading day was a net selling day by the foreigners.

“The highest was on Monday, when the net selling amounted to RM183.1 million and eventually moderated to RM58.2 million on Thursday — the day BNM decided to maintain the OPR at 2.75%.

“However, it picked up pace again on Friday, when the net outflow amounted to RM140.1 million,” it said.

MIDF said that year-to-date, foreign investors have net sold RM1.24 billion worth of domestic equities.

It said sectors that saw net foreign inflows were Construction (RM67.9 million), Technology (RM13.2 million) and Transportation & Logistics (RM7.8 million), while the sectors that saw net foreign outflows were Financial Services (RM359.5 million), Industrial Products & Services (RM90.3 million), and Consumer Products & Services (RM63.5 million).

Meanwhile, the local institutions have net bought domestic equities for the second consecutive week to the tune of RM461.3 million, it said.

MIDF said the amount was about 56% higher than the amount that they have net bought last two weeks.

It said every trading day last week was a net buying day by the local institutions, with the heaviest inflow recorded on Monday at RM161.1 million.

Year-to-date, local institutions have net bought RM1.20 billion worth of domestic equities.

“Local retailers continued to be net buyers for the third consecutive week at a rate of RM95.6 million.

“Every trading day was a net buying day by the retailers, except for Tuesday, as it saw a net outflow of RM4.4 million,” it said.

MIDF said that year-to-date, local retailers were net buyers at RM44.5 million.

In terms of participation, there was a decrease in average daily trading volume (ADTV) among local retailers (3.5%), local institutions (14.7%) and foreign investors (33.1%).

Commenting on the interntional scenario, MIDF said the major indices on Wall Street ended the week with losses, as stocks tumbled after Silicon Valley Bank was shuttered by the United States’ regulators on Friday, following a rush of deposit outflows and a failed attempt to raise new capital.

It said the biggest bank failure since the global financial crisis, which has stunned the banking sector, has overshadowed the latest Feb-23 jobs report, which signalled that inflation could be slowing.

For the week, the S&P 500 saw the biggest weekly percentage decline since June-22 after falling by 4.6% to 3,861.59, Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 4.4% to 31,909.64, while the Nasdaq Composite Index declined by 4.7% to 11,138.89, MIDF said.

“Most global markets ended in the red last week, with financials leading the sell-off in the Asian region.

“Out of the 20 major indices that we track, Hang Seng (6.07%) was the biggest decliner, followed by Nasdaq (4.71%) and the S&P 500 (4.55%).

“The only two advancers were Ho Chi Minh VSE (+2.75%) and Nikkei 225 (+0.78%),” it said.