KUALA LUMUR: Foreign investors’ appetite for Malaysian equity is currently very low as they sold net RM686.4mil of Malaysian stocks in the open market in he week ended Jan 10, says MIDF Equity Research.

It said on Monday the selling by foreign funds over the past seven trading days in 2014 showed that their appetite for Malaysian equity was waning.

“In the last 14 weeks, a total of -RM6.5bil of foreign money had exited Malaysian equity, or an average of -RM464mil a week,” it said.

MIDF Research said foreign funds were net sellers every single trading day last week. Foreign selling was aggressive on Thursday and Friday when they disposed of net RM211.2mil and net RM327.2mil respectively.

“The selldown on Friday was the highest in a day since Nov 13, when -RM427m left amid trepidation over the US Government shutdown,” it pointed out.

However, the research house note that although foreign participation increased last week, the level of activity did not reflect an “exodus”. The participation rate (average daily gross purchase and sale) rose to RM893mil, still less than the RM1bil mark, and about RM100mil lower compared with the daily average of RM991mil in 2013.

MIDF Research said local retailers were returning to the market, and were net buyers for the second week running. However, retailers sold on Friday, probably on profit taking ahead of the holidays this week. Participation rate surged last week to RM957m, from RM688m the week before.

Meanwhile, local institutions continued to absorb the selling by foreign funds. Local funds bought +RM584.7mil net last week on a significantly active participation. Participation rate surged past the RM2bil mark at RM2.2bil. It was only the fourth time it exceeded the mark since September last year.