Foreign portfolio investment transactions resulted in net outflows in February

March 15, 2018

Registered foreign portfolio investments in February amounted to $1.0 billion, 36.6 percent lower than the $1.6 billion recorded in January, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Thursday. Year-on-year, however, inflows rose by 4.8 percent (or $47 million) from $981 million in February 2017. About 81 percent of investments registered during the month were in PSE-listed securities (pertaining mainly to holding firms, property companies, banks, food, beverage and tobacco firms, and casinos and gaming companies). The 19 percent balance went to peso government securities. The United Kingdom, the United States , Malaysia, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, and Singapore were the top six investor countries for the month, with combined share to total at 85.1 percent. Outflows for the month of $1.6 billion reflected increases of 7.7 percent and 13.2 percent compared to those recorded in the previous month ($1.5 billion) and a year ago ($1.4 billion), respectively. The US continued to be the main destination of outflows, receiving 73.8 percent of total remittances. On the overall, transactions for February resulted in net outflows of $545 million. This is a reversal from the $162 million net inflows in January, and may be attributed to profit taking as well as investor reaction to news of possible rate increases by the US Federal Reserve due to an expected surge in inflation amidst implementation of the US government’s tax cuts. Year-on-year, the figure is higher than the $409 million net outflow for February 2017. DMS