KUALA LUMPUR (May 2): Foreign selling of local equities on Bursa Malaysia widened to RM187.8 million last week from a net outflow of RM151.1 million the prior week following the Hari Raya Aidilfitri holidays.

In its weekly fund flow report on Tuesday (May 2), the MIDF Research team said every trading day last week was a net selling day by foreigners.

It said they have been net sellers for 11 out of 17 weeks with a total net outflow of RM2.12 billion.

“Top three sectors that saw net foreign inflows last week were consumer products and services (RM44 million), property (RM12.9 million), and transport and logistics (RM6.4 million).

“Top three sectors that saw net foreign outflows were financial services (RM85.9 million), technology (RM52.5 million), and industrial products and services (RM34.6 million),” it said.

MIDF said local institutional investors turned net buyers to the tune of RM166.6 million last week after they briefly net sold RM7.3 million worth of equities the week prior.

It said every trading day last week was a net buying day by the local institutional investors, with the heaviest net inflow recorded last Thursday (April 27) at RM86.9 million.

It said year-to-date, they have been net buyers for 12 out of 17 weeks with a total net inflow of RM1.99 billion.

MIDF said Malaysian equities saw continued net buying from local retailers for the second consecutive week, totalling RM21.2 million.

It said while the week presented a mixed trading picture for local retailers with outflows of RM3 million last Tuesday and RM17.2 million last Thursday, inflows last Wednesday at RM30.6 million and last Friday at RM10.8 million offset the losses.

Year-to-date, local retailers have been net buyers for nine out of 17 weeks, resulting in a total net inflow of RM129.3 million.

MIDF said in terms of participation, there was an increase in average daily trading volume (ADTV) among foreigners by 3.9%, while there were declines among local institutions at 18.3% and local retailers at 11.5%.

Commenting on the international markets, MIDF said the banking sector experienced renewed stress when the First Republic Bank announced that it had suffered outflows of more than US$100 billion (RM446 billion) in the first quarter of calendar year 2023 and it was exploring options to restructure its balance sheet.

It said this makes it the third major bank in the US to fail within the span of two months.

“Major indices on Wall Street ended the week higher, with Nasdaq (1.28%) being the biggest gainer, followed by the S&P 500 (0.87%) and the Dow Jones (0.86%).

“Out of the 20 major indices that we track globally, 11 ended in the red, while the remaining nine registered gains for the week.

“The major advancers were India’s Sensex (2.44%), Philippines PSEi (1.60%) and Indonesia’s JCI (1.38%). The biggest decliners were Thailand’s SET (1.88%), South Korea’s Kospi (1.68%) and Singapore’s STI (1.54%). The FBM KLCI declined by 0.43% to end at 1,415.95 points last Friday,” it said.