KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia recorded net foreign inflow of RM18.8mil in the week ended April 7, 2023, making it the second straight week of net foreign buying.

According to MIDF Research, investor sentiment remained healthy as Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim visited China and secured RM170.07bil in investments across several industries and also RM2.44bil in potential exports to China.

However, the research firm also highlighted that there was foreign net outflow in four of the five trading days.

On Thursday, foreign funds flowed into blue chips including PETRONAS Gas, QL Resources and Public Bank, erasing the foreign outflow from the other four trading days.

“Top three sectors that saw net foreign inflows last week were Consumer Products & Services (RM39.1m), Utilities (RM24.2m) and Energy (RM18.2m), while the top three sectors that saw net foreign outflows were Financial Services (-RM39.1m), Healthcare (-RM30.2m) and Technology (-RM16.9m),” said MIDF.

Year-to-date, foreigners have net sold Malaysian equities for nine out of 14 weeks, for a net outflow of RM1.86bil.

Meanwhile, local institutions were net buyers with a total net inflow of RM50.1mil.

Local retailers were net sellers of RM69mil of Malaysian equities.

In terms of participation, there was a decline in average daily trading volume (ADTV) among local retailers by 5.8%, local institutions by 3.2% and foreign investors by 18.8%.