KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign investors continued to favour Malaysian equities for the third consecutive week, with a net inflow of RM961.1 million, although the trend was reversed regionally as they sold US$549.8 million (RM2.6 billion) Asian equities across the eight markets.

According to the latest weekly Fund Flow Report by MIDF Research, net buying activity in the local market moderated slightly from the previous week’s RM1.06 billion.

“Buying activities were observed on every trading day last week, except on Thursday. Foreign investors reverted to net buying again on Friday, likely influenced by Bank Negara Malaysia’s decision to maintain the Overnight Policy Rate at 3.00%,” MIDF Research said.

Sectors that recorded the highest net foreign inflows were financial services (RM268.2 million), utilities (RM242.9 million), and transportation and logistics (RM114 million), while the only sectors with net foreign outflows were industrial products and services (RM8.9 million) and real estate investment trusts (RM3.8 million).

Local institutions continued their trend of net selling for the second consecutive week, amounting to RM724.9 million.

At the same time, local retailers continued to dispose of domestic equities for the ninth consecutive week, at RM236.2 million.

In terms of participation, the average daily trading volume increased for local retailers (17.4%) and local institutions (1.3%), whereas those by foreign investors declined to 9.9%. – Bernama