KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 21 — Foreign investors continued to be net buyers for the week ended February 18 with a net inflow of RM955.85 million, influenced by upbeat Malaysia’s export data, MIDF Research said.

The brokerage said this was the second consecutive week of net inflows into Malaysia and international funds have been net buyers on Bursa Malaysia for five out of seven weeks.

"We note that last week, the net buying by foreign investors was also the highest for the year,” it said in a research note today.

MIDF Research said overall, for the seventh week of 2022, retailers and local institutions were net sellers at RM42.02 million and RM913.85 million, respectively.

"On a year-to-date basis, we have observed RM2.01 billion in net inflows from foreign investors. Meanwhile, retailers and local institutions were net sellers to the tune of RM40 million and RM1.97 billion, respectively,” it added.

In terms of participation, retail investors, local institutions and foreign investors recorded a weekly movement of 17.14 per cent, 33.07 per cent and 4.31 per cent, respectively, in average daily trade value.

In terms of sectors last week, the top three sectors that saw the highest net inflows by foreign investors were financial services at RM311.6 million, industrial products and services (RM270.3 million) and plantation (RM242.8 million).

As for the sectors that saw net outflows, healthcare amounted to -RM18.9 million, technology (-RM11.4 million) and property (-RM6.4 million).

For the financial services sector last week, the top three counters that saw the highest value traded coming from foreign investors were Public Bank, CIMB and Maybank.

The top three counters in the industrial products and services sectors that saw the highest value traded coming from foreign investors were Press Metal, Petronas Chemical and Hap Seng Consolidated.

For the plantation sector last week, the top three counters that saw the highest value traded coming from foreign investors were KLK, Sime Darby Plantation and IOI Corp — Bernama