KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 11): Foreign selling of Malaysian equities persisted for a third week at a slower pace of RM27.7 million last week (Sept 4 to 8), compared with RM113.5 million the prior week.

In its weekly fund flow report, MIDF said net selling last Monday and Tuesday could not be reversed by the net buying later that week.

MIDF said foreigners net sold RM107.4 million last Monday and RM58.3 million last Tuesday, before net buying RM95.5 million last Wednesday, RM11.8 million last Thursday, and RM30.8 million last Friday.

“The top three sectors that saw net foreign inflows were utilities (RM211.6 million), property (RM40.4 million), and energy (RM32.9 million).

“The bottom three sectors with net foreign outflows for the week were financial products and services (RM226.0 million), industrial products and services (RM33.5 million), and consumer products and services (RM30.2 million),” MIDF said.

MIDF said that year-to-date, foreigners had net sold RM2.70 billion.

“Local institutions, on the other hand, maintained their net buying pace for the fourth consecutive week, with an amount of RM60.6 million last week.

“The net buying amount of RM92.3 million last Monday and RM87.7 million last Tuesday was sufficient to cushion the outflows last Wednesday (RM79.6 million), last Thursday (RM11.1 million), and last Friday (RM28.8 million),” MIDF said.

MIDF said that year-to-date, local institutions had net bought RM3.29 billion of equities on Bursa Malaysia.

“Meanwhile, local retail investors continued to net sell, going into the ninth consecutive week. The net selling amount came up to RM33.0 million last week.

“They net bought RM15.1 million last Monday, but were net sellers for the rest of the week. Year-to-date, local retailers had net sold RM583.6 million,” MIDF said.

MIDF said in terms of participation, there was a decline in the average daily trading volume across the board among foreign investors (51.1%), institutional investors (28.4%), and retail investors (26.6%) .

Commenting on the international scenario, MIDF said most markets ended in a sea of red last week, with 16 out of 20 indices the research house monitors posting declines, amid jittery sentiments ahead of the US' August 2023 consumer price index this Wednesday, which will likely set the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision in the Federal Open Market Committee meeting next week. Further weighing on sentiments was the slow growth in China’s services activity, and continued shrinking of the country's exports and imports.

MIDF said another major development that moved markets last week stemmed from ongoing tensions between China and the US, as reports surfaced that the Chinese government had ordered a ban on the usage of Apple's iPhones and other foreign-brand devices among civil servants and employees of Chinese state-owned companies, which saw Apple’s share price and those in its supply chain taking a hit.

“The top three indices that advanced last week were the Sensex (1.85%), Ho Chi Minh VSE (1.42%) and the Philippines’ PSEi (0.68%).

“The worst decliners of the week were the Nasdaq Composite Index (1.93%), ASX 200 (1.67%), and the Shenzhen CSI 300 (1.36%),” MIDF said.