Business

Foreign Portfolio Investments Yield $193M in January

Transactions during January 2011 pertaining to foreign portfolio investments (FPI) registered with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) resulted in a net inflow of $193 million, 54.9% lower than the $428 million net inflow for December 2010, but 13.5% higher than the $170 million recorded a year ago. The decline seen in January 2011 may be attributed to profit taking and to the tensions in Egypt starting in late January which triggered selloffs.

Investments in Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE)-listed shares for January 2011 amounted to $616 million (or 40.1% of total BSP-registered for the month), up by 41.3% from the $436 million total of January 2010.

The $921 million balance (or 59.9% of total) of registered investments were in Peso GS ($870 million against $50 million in January 2010) and Peso time deposits ($51 million compared to $90 million last year) with minimum maturity of 90 days. The United States, Singapore, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, were the top five investor countries, collectively contributing 90% to total registered investments.

Outflows for BSP-registered FPI increased  to $1.3 billion from $406 million a year ago and $973 million in December 2010. The bulk of these were withdrawals from interim peso deposits, representing divestment proceeds from registered investments that were parked in said accounts pending reinvestment or repatriation.

Registration of inward foreign investments with the BSP is voluntary. It entitles the investor or his representative to buy foreign exchange from authorized agent banks or their subsidiary/affiliate foreign exchange corporations for repatriation of capital and remittance of dividends/profits/earnings that accrue on the registered investment.

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