KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign selling of Malaysian equities has extended to 10th consecutive week in the period ended June 23.
This marks the longest streak of net selling by foreigners for 2023, according to MIDF Research.
"Over the past 10 weeks, the net foreign outflow from Bursa Malaysia was RM2.06 billion. Year-to- date, foreigners have net sold Malaysian equities for 19 out of 25 weeks, totalling RM3.83 billion," the firm said in its weekly fund flow report.
Local institutional investors, meanwhile, continued to net buy for four weeks straight that brought the amount to RM250.3 million, said MIDF Research.
The firm said local institutions had been net buyers for 19 out 25 weeks with a total amount of RM3.45 billion.
"Year-to-date, retailers have been net buyers for 13 out of 25 weeks with a total of RM381.6 million," it said.
As for net foreign inflows, MIDF Research said the top three sectors that became the top pick for last week were property at RM14.5 million, financial services at RM14.1 million and technology at RM11.5 million.
Sectors with the most outflows are consumer products and services of RM92.2 million, energy of RM47.2 million and industrials of RM34.5 million.
On the deceleration of inflation rate in Malaysia that eased to 2.8 percent year-on-year, MIDF Research said the moderation of inflation was due to high base effect.
"Core inflation rate remained sticky, lingering above 3.5 per cent y-o-y. We opine that the steady domestic demand and sticky core inflation may lead to another 25 bps hike by Bank Negara in the second half of 2023," it said.
On trade, while the country's trade rose to RM223.8 billion in May 2023, the firm said with lower trade surplus, it could limit net exports' contribution to economic growth in the second quarter of 2023.
"Following the relatively sharper rise in exports, trade surplus rose to RM15.4 billion (Apr-23: RM12.6b), remaining below average monthly surplus of RM20.8 billion recorded during the post-pandemic recovery since June 2020," it said.
