KUALA LUMPUR (March 25): Foreign selling of Malaysian equities extended for a fourth week, albeit 24% lower at RM313.8 million last week, from RM415.1 million the prior week.

In its weekly fund flow report on Monday (March 25), MIDF Research said foreign funds were net sellers from last Monday (March 18) to last Wednesday, totalling RM757.5 million, and net bought RM443.7 million last Thursday and last Friday following improved sentiments after the Federal Open Market Committee meeting with three rate cuts still in the pipeline.

“In Malaysia, Bank Negara had also forecasted a growth of 4% to 5% in 2024, supported by resilient domestic demand and an improvement in external demand.

“The sectors with the highest net foreign inflows as at last Thursday were property (RM100.1 million), energy (RM21.6 million) and construction (RM14.1 million),” it said.

MIDF said the sectors that recorded the highest net foreign outflows were financial services (RM272.3 million), consumer products and services (RM123.8 million) and utilities (RM93.2 million).

“Meanwhile, local institutions continued their trend of net buying for the fourth consecutive week as they net bought RM442.7 million.

“As opposed to foreign investors, they net bought RM835.3 million from last Monday to last Wednesday and net sold RM392.6 million on last Thursday and last Friday,” it said.

The research house said local retailers retained their net selling stance at RM128.8 million last week, net selling every day.

It said they have been net sellers for 12 consecutive trading days.

“In terms of participation, the average daily trading volume (ADTV) rose among retail investors by 2.6% and institutional investors by 3.1% while foreign investors saw a decline of 29.2%,” it said.

Commenting on the international scenario, MIDF said major markets performed favourably last week, with 15 out of the 20 major indices that it monitors advancing higher, led by the Nikkei 225 (5.63%), South Korea’s Kospi (3.06%) and the Nasdaq Composite Index (2.85%).

“The top three decliners for the week were the Hang Seng Index (1.32%), China’s CSI 300 (0.70%) and the FBM KLCI (0.67%),” it said.