Bursa Malaysia: Key takeaways from the weekly flows ending 16 Apr 2021 

· Bursa Malaysia: Local institutional investors turned weekly net buyer after 18 weeks of net selling They net bought RM116.7m of Malaysian equities last week, making them the largest net buyer of Malaysia equities. Retail investors were relegated to the second largest net buyer spot last week. Foreign investors were the only net seller last week and their net sell flows jumped 202% wow to RM235m. 

 

· KLCI fell 0.2% wow as gains in healthcare were offset by losses in telco and transport Local institutional investors were the largest net buyers in the healthcare sector (+4% wow) while local retail, local nominees and foreign investors were net sellers of the healthcare sector last week. In the telco sector, foreign investors were the largest net sellers while local institutions were the largest net buyers. 

· Focusing on fund flows of glove makers last week Local institutional investors’ top three net buy stocks last week were Supermax, Top Glove and Hartalega. Top Glove was also the largest net buy stock by foreign investors last week but they were net sellers of Hartalega and Supermax, their top two net sells. Top Glove was the no. 1 net sell stock by both local retail and local nominee investor groups. 

· LKL, Press Metal and Revenue in top 10 net buy/sell lists LKL was the top net buy stock by retail investors last week and it was the second largest net sell stock by nominee investors. Press Metal emerged as the second largest net buy stock by foreign investors last week but it was a net sell stock by local institutional and retail investors. Revenue group appeared as the fourth largest net buy stock of foreign investors last week. 

· Top Glove, Hartalega and Maybank trending among investors’ top net buy/net sell Top Glove was consistently among the top three net buy stocks for foreign investors while Hartalega was consistently among their top three net sells for the past three weeks. Maybank were among the top three net buy stocks by retail investors over the past four weeks.

KLCI flattish wow due partly to profit-taking in telco sector · Last week, the KLCI fell 0.2% wow to 1,608 pts due mainly to profit-taking in the telco sector following strong gains two weeks ago; this more than offset gains in the healthcare sector.

· Average daily trading volume fell 9% wow to 6.4bn units. Meanwhile, average daily trading value rose 11% wow to RM4.25bn. Average daily trading value was boosted by a DBT trade last Thursday.

· Retail investors’ share of total trading value was 36.7% last week (+0.3% pts wow) and institutional investors’ share of trade was 27.7% (+0.5% pts wow) while proprietary’s share of trade was 17.2% (-1.4% pts wow) and nominees’ 18.5% (+0.7% pts wow).

Local institutions turned net buyers after 18 weeks of net selling

· All the key investor groups except foreign investors were net buyers during the week ended 16 Apr 2021. 

· Local institutional investors not only turned weekly net buyers for the first time this year but were also the largest weekly net buyer last week. To recap, local institutional investors were net sellers for 18 consecutive weeks before last week.

· Retail investors were relegated to the second largest weekly net buyer spot as net buy flows fell 4% wow to RM95m. · Foreign investors remained in net selling mode and their net sell flows jumped 202% wow to RM235m. 

· Local nominees’ net buying fell 25% last week to RM16.8m while proprietary turned net buyers last week of RM6.6m (vs. RM37.3m net selling two weeks ago).

Foreign shareholdings fell to a low of 20.3% as at end-Mar 2021 

· Foreign shareholding of Malaysian equities fell by 0.1% pt to 20.3% as at end-Mar 2021 and is now at its previous low of 20.3% in May 2010. This is due partly to foreign net sells of RM34m in Mar 2021. 

· The declining trend in foreign shareholding started in May 2018 or after the GE14 on 9 May 2018 when Pakatan Harapan (PH) won a simple majority in parliament, heralding the first change in government in Malaysia’s history. Since then, the foreign shareholding level has fallen 3.9% pts from its peak of 24.2% in May 2018 to 20.3% as at Mar 2021. 

· Foreign investors have also been net sellers in the market for 21 consecutive months, from Jul 2019 to Mar 2021. YTD 2021, foreign investors have net sold RM2bn of Malaysian equities.

– By CIMB Bank Research

 

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