KUALA LUMPUR (April 15): Foreign selling of Malaysian equities extended into its seventh consecutive week, with a weekly outflow of RM373.5 million last week from RM336 million the prior week. 

In its weekly fund flow report on Monday, the MIDF Research team said this was about 11% wider than the net selling amount in the previous week due to a shortened trading week of only three days due to the Hari Raya Aidilfitri holidays.

The sectors with the highest net foreign inflows include property (RM75.3 million), transportation and logistics (RM26.8 million) and construction (RM16.5 million). Meanwhile, sectors they were net selling were financial services (RM285.9 million), utilities (RM85.4 million) and consumer products and services (RM52.7 million).  

MIDF said that in contrast, local institutions continued their trend of buying domestic equities for the seventh consecutive week, with purchases totalling RM430.7 million.  

It said they ended their 22-day streak of net selling by making purchases of RM9.5 million on Tuesday but engaged in net selling throughout the rest of the trading days last week.    

“Local retailers continued as net sellers for the fifth consecutive week, with net sales amounting to RM57.1 million,” it said.  

On participation, MIDF said the average daily trading volume (ADTV) saw a decrease among local retailers (3.1%) and local institutions (15.2%), while experiencing an increase among foreign investors (3.1%).

Commenting on the international front, MIDF said global markets face continued challenges as “stubborn inflation persists, affecting decision on interest rate cut by central bank worldwide”.  

Despite this, US Federal Reserve officials remain cautious about rate cuts, with the "CME FedWatch Tool" indicating a high probability of rates staying unchanged in upcoming meetings.   

"Majority of major markets experienced declines, with 12 out of the 20 indices we monitor recording losses, while 2 remained unchanged," it said. 

"Taiwan’s Taiex led with a growth of 1.96%, followed by Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh VSE [1.71%], and Thailand’s SET [1.51%]. 

"Notable decliners included China’s Shenzhen CSI 300 [2.58%], Dow Jones [2.37%], and the S&P 500 [1.56%]," it said.