KUALA LUMPUR (June 10): Foreign buying of Malaysian equities resumed in earnest last week as they mopped up RM535 million compared to net selling of RM1.24 billion the prior week.

In its weekly fund flow report on Monday, the MIDF Research team said while it was a shortened trading week in conjunction with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s Birthday on June 3, foreign investors net bought RM253.7 million on Tuesday, RM163.6 million on Thursday and RM186.8 million on Friday.

“Meanwhile, they net sold RM69.1 million on Wednesday.

“The sectors with the highest net foreign inflows last week were Utilities (RM167.5 million), Transportation & Logistics (RM134.5 million), and Technology (RM115.7 million), while the sectors with the highest net foreign outflows were Plantation (RM108.2 million), Telecommunication & Media (RM32.1 million), and Energy (RM22.4 million),” it said.

MIDF said that in contrast, local institutions returned to net selling at RM293.5 million after briefly net buying the week before.

“Local retailers returned to net selling again, disposing of RM242.5 million worth of equities after briefly net buying the week before.

“They net sold for the whole week,” it said.

The research house said in terms of participation, the average daily trading volume (ADTV) declined across the board by 6.3% for retailers, 2.7% for local institutions and 21.7% for foreign investors.

Meanwhile, commenting on the international scene, MIDF said a majority of the markets advanced last week, with 15 out of the 20 indices registering gains.

“Topping the list were India’s Sensex (3.69%), South Korea’s Kospi (3.27%) and Taiwan’s TAIEX (3.23%).

“The top three decliners were the Jakarta Composite Index (1.04%), Thailand’s SET (0.96%) and the FTSE 100 (0.36%),” it said.