KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): Local institutions remained a pillar of support on Bursa Malaysia, marking their 19th consecutive week of net buying with a substantial RM817.4 million inflow into domestic equities, up from RM316.3 million the previous week.

In its fund flow report for the week ended Feb 28, MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd said local retail investors extended their net buying streak for a third week, recording a net inflow of RM447.9 million, up from RM245.7 million.  

“The average daily trading volume (ADTV) saw broad-based increases,” it said.

Foreign investors recorded a sharp rise of 80.3% in ADTV, while local institutions saw a 5.8% uptick. Local retail investors posted a modest decline of 1.6%.  

MIDF Amanah said, however, foreign investors extended their selling streak on Bursa for the 19th consecutive week, with a significantly larger net outflow of RM1.27 billion, compared with RM562.0 million the previous week.  

“Foreign investors’ selling pressure persisted throughout the week, with last Friday seeing the heaviest outflow at RM646.2 million,” it noted.  

The only sectors that saw net foreign inflows were construction (RM24.1 million), telecommunications and media (RM14.7 million), and real estate investment trusts (RM6.7 million).  

Meanwhile, the top three sectors with the highest net foreign outflows were financial services (RM362.1 million), consumer products and services (RM314.9 million), and utilities (RM255.1 million).  

Across Asian equities, foreign investors remained net sellers in all eight tracked markets, with a total outflow of US$12.23 billion (RM54.52 billion), a slight improvement from US$12.94 billion the previous month.

This marked the fifth consecutive month of net foreign outflows.  

The eight markets were Malaysia, India, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines.  

Uploaded by Tham Yek Lee