KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign purchases in the domestic market intensified over the past week to RM637.8mil net for a third straight week of net inflow.
According to MIDF Research, the net inflows from foreign investors were more than RM100mil on each day between Tuesday and Friday, averaging RM164.1mil a day.
The bullish sentiment comes amid an increase in global investor optimism as the market now expected the US Federal Reserve to halt any further interest rate hikes for now following the recent 25 basis points increase.
In addition, Fed chair Jerome Powell noted that the central bank is no longer forecasting a US economic recession this year, while the US GDP grew 2.4% quarter-on-quarter, which was a faster pace than expected.
On Bursa Malaysia, the sectors that recorded the most foreign inflows were utilities (RM253.4mil), plantation (RM127.8mil) and financial services (RM86.3mil).
The only three sectors that registered net foreign outflows last week were REITs (RM22.6mil), industrial products and services (RM22.4mil) and telecommunications and media (RM8mil).
Meanwhile, local institutions entered a third consecutive week of net selling to the tune of RM403.9mil.
Local retailers were also net sellers of RM233.7mil, with net selling on every day of the past week.
"In terms of participation, there was an increase in average daily trading volume (ADTV) across the board.
"It was 2.5% higher among retail investors whereas for local institutions and foreign investors, both categories saw a 7.3% increase in ADTV," said MIDF.
