KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign funds upped the ante in buying stocks listed on Bursa, acquiring RM190.2mil of local equities last week, according to MIDF Research.

“This was the second inflow registered after nine consecutive weeks of net outflows,” MIDF said in its weekly fund flow report.

As the market reopened last Monday, MIDF said foreign investors sold RM43.6mil net of local equities, with retailers and local institutions both as net buyers and net sellers to the tune of RM50.3mil and RM6.7mil respectively.

“Foreign investors were net buyers every day except for Monday. The largest foreign inflow was recorded on Friday at RM113.3mil and the smallest inflow was on Tuesday at RM20.5mil. Meanwhile, the only outflow was recorded on Monday,” the research house said.

MIDF said retailers were net buyers every day. The largest net buying by the retailers was recorded on Monday at RM50.3mil and the smallest net buying was on Friday at RM15.3mil.

Cumulatively, for the week, retailers net bought RM147.9mil worth of equities in Bursa.

On the other hand, local institutions’ cumulative weekly outflow was to the tune of RM338.1mil.

The biggest net selling was on Thursday at RM137.9mil while the smallest net selling was on Monday at RM6.7mil.

“Since the beginning of 2021, cumulatively, retailers have been the only net buyers of our equity market to the tune of RM6.5bil.

“Local institutions and foreign investors were net sellers to the tune of RM3.4bil and RM3.1bil, respectively,” MIDF said.

In terms of participation, retail investors recorded a weekly decrease of 2.4% while local institutions and foreign investors recorded a weekly increase of 6.4% and 101.9% respectively in average daily trade value.

Press Metal registered the highest net money inflow of RM3.68mil last week.

Genting saw the second highest net money inflow of RM2.73mil while Petronas Chemicals saw the third highest net money inflow of RM2.49mil.

On the other hand, Maybank saw the largest net money outflow of RM7.76mil last week.

Serba Dinamik recorded the second largest net money outflow of RM2.91mil and Inari registered the third largest net outflow of RM2.62 during the week under review.