Foreign portfolio investment transactions yield net outflows In November

December 19, 2019

Transactions on BSP-registered foreign portfolio investments for November yielded net outflows of $345 million as a result of the $1.5 billion outflows and $1.2 billion inflows for the month.

This is in contrast from the net inflows noted in October ($105 million).

The $1.2 billion registered investments reflected a 4.5 percent decrease from the $1.3 billion figure in October.

About 86.4 percent of investments registered during the month were in PSE-listed securities (pertaining mainly to holding firms, banks, property companies, food, beverage and tobacco firms, and transportation services companies) while the remaining 13.6 percent went to investments in Peso GS.

The United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Luxembourg were the top five investor countries for the month, with combined share to total at 78.6 percent.

Outflows for the month ($1.5 billion) were higher compared to the level recorded for October ($1.1 billion or by 34.2 percent). The US received 73.4 percent of total outflows.

Developments for the month included: (i) stalled negotiations between the US and China which could delay the first phase of the implementation of their trade deal; (ii) start of the public impeachment hearings on US President Donald Trump; (iii) US Congress' passage of a human rights bill supporting the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong; and (iv) the rebalancing of the Morgan Stanley Capital International Philippines Index to reflect its new weightings.

Year-on-year, registered investments were 41.4 percent lower than the $2.0 billion level recorded in November 2018.

Similarly, gross outflows were higher than the outflows noted a year ago ($1.2 billion or by 27.5 percent). In contrast, net inflows of $832 million were noted fo r the same period a year ago. DMS