Wave of foreign buying on Bursa last week

PETALING JAYA: Foreign purchases of equities listed on the open market (excluding off-market deals) surged to a net of RM1.45 billion last week, the second highest in a week this year and five times more than that in the week before.

“There was an influx of foreign liquidity into Bursa last week despite it being a fourday trading week,” MIDF Research said in its fund flow report yesterday.

It said foreign buying on Bursa has now stretched for 12 consecutive weeks, the longest since the 24-week buying streak, which ended in May 2013, the month of the last general election.

Most foreign buying occurred on Tuesday and Friday when the amount reached RM415.2 million and RM405.8 million net respectively.

In the first four months of 2017, the inflow has exceeded RM400 million on five different days. In comparison, the day-count was eight in 2013, two in 2014, one in 2015 and five in 2016.

For April, the cumulative foreign net purchases amounted to RM2.62 billion. That was slightly more than half the cumulative inflow in the previous month, which amounted to RM4.70 billion.

Foreign participation on Bursa also bounced strongly last week to an elevated level, according to MIDF Research.

“Foreign average daily trade value (ADTV) was up by 56% to RM1.34 billion. Indeed, the foreign daily trade value was above RM1 billion for every single day of the week.”

Meanwhile, retail participation has started to recover as the ADTV increased by 25% to RM1.10 billion. However, retailers are still on “take-profit” mode, selling for the 10th week in a row.