{"id":7969,"date":"2021-01-25T13:08:19","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T05:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=7969"},"modified":"2021-01-25T13:08:19","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T05:08:19","slug":"foreign-investors-withdrew-rm288-2m-local-equities-last-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=7969","title":{"rendered":"Foreign investors withdrew RM288.2m local equities last week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 25 \u2014Foreign investors withdrew RM288.2 million net of local equities during the third week of 2021 compared to the RM326.1 million acquired in the preceding week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim&nbsp;said the week started on a rather sluggish note as international investors sold RM57.2 million net of local equities on Monday, snapping the seven-day buying streak on Bursa Malaysia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vibes on Monday were positive amid China\u2019s economy staging a recovery to pre-pandemic growth rates in the fourth quarter of 2020, propelling it to a full-year expansion of 2.3 per cent&nbsp;and making it the only major one to avoid a contraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nevertheless, there was some selling activity in local banking stocks on Bursa Malaysia\u00a0amid\u00a0speculation of a cut in the overnight policy rate by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe pace of selling activity of local equities by foreign investors slowed down to RM14.8 million net on Tuesday, as investors took a\u00a0cue of the 2.7 percent\u00a0rise in Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng index, driven by Chinese investors, who are targeting national firms such as China Mobile Ltd that had earlier sold off on the imposition of US\u00a0restrictions,\u201d he told Bernama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/94cdcaa0e68612d85813037fb905971f5fbc72d202719-1024x554.jpg\" alt=\"local equities\" class=\"wp-image-7809\" width=\"410\" height=\"221\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/94cdcaa0e68612d85813037fb905971f5fbc72d202719-1024x554.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/94cdcaa0e68612d85813037fb905971f5fbc72d202719-300x162.jpg 300w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/94cdcaa0e68612d85813037fb905971f5fbc72d202719-768x416.jpg 768w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/94cdcaa0e68612d85813037fb905971f5fbc72d202719-185x100.jpg 185w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/94cdcaa0e68612d85813037fb905971f5fbc72d202719-350x190.jpg 350w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/94cdcaa0e68612d85813037fb905971f5fbc72d202719-800x433.jpg 800w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/94cdcaa0e68612d85813037fb905971f5fbc72d202719.jpg 1086w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 410px) 100vw, 410px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Adam said the contraction in foreign net selling activity continued on Wednesday to reach RM8.9 million as BNM kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record-low of 1.75 per cent&nbsp;at its first meeting of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The move somewhat calmed the nerves of investors, who particularly had exposure in banking stocks, as an unchanged&nbsp;overnight policy rate (OPR) would mean lower risks of net interest margin compression for banks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe latest decision by BNM to maintain the OPR also indicated that the central bank is probably adopting a wait-and-see approach, awaiting the response of businesses towards the Malaysian Economic and Rakyat&#8217;s Protection (PERMAI) assistance package announced on Jan 18,&nbsp;2021,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, havoc wreaked Thursday as international funds dumped RM117.7 million net amid a sell off in rubber glover counters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Adam said the dampened sentiment in rubber glove stocks on Thursday was due to the 0.4 per cent appreciation of ringgit against the US dollar which could hurt the revenue of rubber glove makers as their products are exported to other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Friday then saw a foreign net outflow of RM89.7 million as risk appetite was dented following reports that Hong Kong planned&nbsp;to lock down tens of thousands of residents for the first time to contain a worsening COVID-19 outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Notwithstanding this, he said buying interest in rubber glove counters returned on Friday amid the high number of coronavirus infections around the glove, which helped&nbsp;prevent further selling activity by foreign funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd, in a research note, said since the beginning of 2021, cumulatively, retailers were the only net buyers of our equity market to the tune of RM1.16 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Local institutions and foreign investors are net sellers to the tune of RM862.97 million and RM299.09 million, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn comparison to another three Southeast Asian markets that we tracked last week &#8212;&nbsp;Thailand and Indonesia recorded foreign net inflow whereas Philippines and Malaysia experienced net outflow,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In terms of participation, the retail investors recorded a weekly decrease of 9.49 percent\u00a0in average daily trade value (ADTV) while\u00a0foreign investors and local institutions experienced declines in ADTV of 23.16 percent\u00a0and 7.66 percent,\u00a0respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bernama.com\/en\/business\/news.php?id=1925312\">BERNAMA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 25 \u2014Foreign investors withdrew RM288.2 million net of local equities during the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[524],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/94cdcaa0e68612d85813037fb905971f5fbc72d202719.jpg",1086,588,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/94cdcaa0e68612d85813037fb905971f5fbc72d202719-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/94cdcaa0e68612d85813037fb905971f5fbc72d202719-300x162.jpg",300,162,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/94cdcaa0e68612d85813037fb905971f5fbc72d202719-768x416.jpg",640,347,true],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/94cdcaa0e68612d85813037fb905971f5fbc72d202719-1024x554.jpg",640,346,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/94cdcaa0e68612d85813037fb905971f5fbc72d202719.jpg",1086,588,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/94cdcaa0e68612d85813037fb905971f5fbc72d202719.jpg",1086,588,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/94cdcaa0e68612d85813037fb905971f5fbc72d202719.jpg",1086,588,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/94cdcaa0e68612d85813037fb905971f5fbc72d202719.jpg",1024,554,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/94cdcaa0e68612d85813037fb905971f5fbc72d202719.jpg",720,390,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?cat=524\" rel=\"category\">Nation<\/a>","tag_info":"Nation","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7970,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7969\/revisions\/7970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}