KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia saw the largest weekly outflow from its equity market last week since August 2013, as selling by foreign investors intensified amid uncertainties arising from the current weak oil prices and the prospects of higher US interest rates in the coming months.
Foreign money outflow from the Malaysian equity market totalled RM1.42bil for the week ended Jan 16, which was more than double from the RM535.2mil registered in the preceding week, according to the latest fund flow report by MIDF Equity Research.
The brokerage noted that it was the second time in six weeks that foreign money outflow from the Malaysian equity market exceeded the RM1bil mark. The amount was also the biggest outflow for the country in almost two and a half years.
Foreign investors were net sellers every single day last week,” MIDF said.Selling peaked on Wednesday, when a net amount of RM413.1mil was offloaded,” it added, noting that it was the first time that foreign investors had sold more than RM400mil in a single day in the open market since Feb 4 last year.
An analyst with MIDF told StarBiz that the trend of foreign money outflow from Malaysia, as well as other Asian equity markets, would likely continue in the weeks ahead until new impetus emerged for investors to put their
