Maybank IB Research said foreigners net sold a sizable RM1.35bil worth of local equities in March, higher than the net selling amount of RM0.17bil in February.
PETALING JAYA: Foreign funds continued to exit Bursa Malaysia for the seventh consecutive month in March, according to Maybank Investment Bank (IB) Research.
In its fund flow report, the research outfit said foreigners net sold a sizable RM1.35bil worth of local equities in March, higher than the net selling amount of RM0.17bil in February.
It said almost all the selling occurred in the first 14 days of the month.
“The last time that foreign-selling was of this size was in December 2022 at RM1.36bil,” the research firm pointed out. To date, foreign investors have net sold RM1.87bil of local securities.
The selling was not confined to Bursa Malaysia as Thailand and the Philippines were also experienced net selling to the tune of US$0.92bil (RM4.04bil) and US$0.5bil (RM2.2bil) in March 2023 respectively.
Foreign investors were net buyers in Indonesia and Vietnam, adding US$0.27bil (RM1.19bil) and US$0.12bil (RM0.53bil) of equities respectively for the month.
“Year-to-date (y-t-d), foreign investors withdrew US$1.65bil (RM7.25bil) from Thailand and US$0.52bil (RM2.29bil) from the Philippines, while adding US$0.45bil (RM1.98bil) in Indonesia and US$0.25bil (RM1.1bil) in Vietnam,” it said.
While foreign investors were net short in Malaysia, local institutional investors bought RM1.28bil worth of equities in March, as compared with the net selling of RM0.26bil in February.
The buying by local institutions lifted their net buy y-t-d to RM1.77bil.
Retail investors, on the other hand, bought RM0.07bil of equities in March, lower than the RM0.43bil in February, bringing their net buy for the y-t-d to RM0.11bil, according to market data.
Maybank IB Research noted trade participation by foreign investors was higher at 26.2% in March compared with 25.3% in February.
Participation by domestic institutional investors dipped slightly to 46% compared with 47.3% in February, while that of retail investors increased marginally to 27.8% compared with 27.4% in February.
Foreign holding of Malaysian equities was 20.2% at the end of March, compared with 20.4% at the end of February, the research house said.
Maybank IB Research said despite the global bond sell-off, Malaysian bonds buck the trend with a surprisingly large RM4.3bil inflow in February, the largest monthly inflow since August 2022.
“This raised the total foreign holdings to RM251.5bil, which was the highest since September 2022,” the research house pointed out.
