While the Malaysian Government allay concerns that the appreciating ringgit will affect Malaysia's competitiveness we are concern about Bursa Malaysia's competitiveness.
According to Maybank Investment bank, despite funds flowing back substantially into Asian equities in March (USD4b, vs USD2.7b outflows in February), Malaysia continued to experience a fourth consecutive month of foreign funds outflow from its equity market.
Funds flow into equities in March reversed the outflows of February, but only in Asia, where a net USD4.0b was added to Asia (USD2.7b outflow in Feb). Malaysia did not benefit, and instead experienced a USD64m outflow; this is now the fourth consecutive month of outflows from Malaysian equities. The Malaysian market is a comparatively low beta market, and generally does less well in a trade rebound. The Malaysian market was the fourth worst performing market in Asia in March, after being the 6th best performing market in February. Maybank Investment Bank
When the ringgit rises it normally attract foreign fund inflow. So when money start flowing out while ringgit is still rising you got to stand up and take note: Will ringgit consolidate soon? Or do they think ringgit is consolidating soon? Or is it simply because other Asia markets are more attractive? Will the fund outflow continue to fifth consecutive months? Make a smart guess.
Latest News: Foreign funds sell US$64m Malaysia shares
Talking about foreign fund, here's an excerpt from my blog post on 8th Dec 2009:
Some points already noted previously. Now, let just add more:
1. As for foreign participation in the Malaysian market, several people in the local investment community said it was still at a level lower than it had been prior to the economic crisis. Foreign participation could be "quite limited" as local funds may also be trading through foreign brokers (read more at theedge malaysia)
What? The "foreign fund" actually came from our own local fund ?
2. "Foreign funds that had come into the Malaysian market over the past week were selling out last Thursday and Friday (2nd week of November), but the FBM KLCI did not fall much as the exiting funds were selling their holdings to other funds which were entering the Malaysian market"
First, some of the 'foreign funds' are actually 'local fund'. Then these "foreign local fund" or "local-fund -that-pretend-to-be-foreign" could be selling holdings to other "foreign local fund".
Prior to that: "According to industry observers, foreign trading participation has been rising for the past three months (Aug – Oct 2009). Bursa Malaysia statistics on trading participation showed that in October 2009, foreign institutional and foreign retail trading made up 24.86% and 0.57% of the total RM26.2 billion in value traded."
Now, how much percentage of that 24.86% actually came from our "foreign local fund"?
