Foreign investors net sold about US$6 billion of Malaysian debt in March, their seventh consecutive and biggest sales since January 2011, according to the central bank data.

Foreign sales of Malaysian bonds accelerated since November last year, after the central bank had asked foreign banks to stop trading ringgit non-deliverable forwards (NDFs), offshore contracts they use to hedge their exposure to the currency.

Foreigners were unable to hedge their risk in onshore markets because of lack of liquidity.

On the other hand, foreigners net bought Indian and Indonesian bonds in March. There were inflows of US$3.9 billion and US$2.4 billion in Indian and Indonesian bonds respectively.

March inflows in Indian bonds was the biggest in at least 15 years as per government data.

- Reuters