KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign inflow on the Malaysian stock market rose to its highest in the year so far at RM749.34mil in the previous week amid optimism over the country's recent release of economic data.

       MIDF Research, which tracks the Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and Malaysia bourses in Southeast Asia, noted that all these markets recorded foreign inflow for the week on positive sentiment over their stability.

       It said foreign interest in Malaysian equities was spurred on by positive developments in the country's economy including December industrial production index growth of 5.8%, December distributive trade sales growth of 3.5% and 4Q GDP growth of 3.6%.

       "The largest foreign inflow was recorded on Wednesday at RM279.64mil and the smallest inflow was on Monday at only RM21.82mil," said the research firm in a report.

       MIDF added that international funds have been net buyers on the local stock exchange for four out of the past six week

       In addition, foreign investors were net buyers for every day of the past week, which last occurred in the week ending Jan 14.

       Meanwhile, local institutions were active sellers with a sum of RM649.18mil net of local equities sold over the week.

       Retailers were net sellers on every day of the week excepts on Monday. By Friday's close, retailers had net sold RM100.17mil in Bursa Malaysia stock.

       Year-to-date, foreign investors have been net buyers of RM1.052bil in local equities.

       Net buying by retailers stands at a marginal RM980,000 while local institutions are net sellers of RM1.053bil of Malaysian stock.