KUALA LUMPUR (May 6): Foreign buying of Malaysian equities surged 3.6 times to RM1.06 billion last week from RM292.2 million the prior week, as they net bought every day of the week.

In its fund flow report on Monday (May 6), MIDF Research said this was the strongest weekly net buying amount in two years.

It said the last time Malaysia saw such heavy inflows was the week ended March 18, 2022 at RM1.18 billion.

“Foreign investors net bought RM451.8 million last Monday (April 30), RM184.3 million last Tuesday, RM43.0 million last Thursday and RM376.1 million last Friday.

“The sectors that recorded the highest net foreign inflows were utilities (RM443.7 million), financial services (RM277.3 million), and telecommunication and media (RM140.4 million), while the sectors with the highest net foreign outflows were energy (RM22.4 million), plantation (RM16.9 million), and property (RM10.4 million),” it said.

MIDF said local institutions took a breather from their strong support for the local market when they net sold RM943.1 million last week, after net buying for nine straight weeks.

“They net sold every day last week.

“Local retailers sustained their net selling streak for the eighth consecutive week, totalling RM112.2 million,” it said.

MIDF said that in terms of participation, the average daily trading volume saw increases among all investor classes.

It said foreign investors led with an increase of 22.0%, followed by local institutional investors at 16.7% and local retail investors at 6.7%.

Commenting on the international scenario, MIDF said major markets continued to perform favourably last week, with 16 out of the 20 indices it monitors posting gains.

“The top performers included Hong Kong’s Hang Seng (4.67%), followed by the Nasdaq (1.43%), and the Jakarta Composite Index (1.40%).

“The bottom three decliners were the CAC 40 (1.62%), DAX 40 (0.88%) and Stoxx Europe 600 (0.48%),” it said.