Foreign Portfolio Investments Yield $44M Net Inflow

Manila—(PHStocks)—Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)—For the month of June, transactions in foreign portfolio investments yielded overall net inflows of $44 million, a turnaround from last year’s net outflows ($85 million), although net inflows for the previous month were more substantial at $545 million.

Registered foreign portfolio investments during the month declined to $1.7 billion from $2 billion in May; outflows increased from $1.4 billion to $1.6 billion.

About 75.3 percent of the investments were in PSE-listed securities (mainly holding firms; banks; property companies; food, beverage and tobacco firms; and telecommunication companies); and 24.7 percent in Peso GS. Net inflows of $85 million were recorded for PSE-listed securities, while net outflows of $41 million were noted for Peso GS.

The United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, and Luxembourg were the top five (5) investor countries for the month, with combined share to total of 81.4 percent. The United States continued to be the main destination of outflows, receiving 81.0 percent of total.

Registration of inward foreign investments with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is voluntary under the liberalized rules on foreign exchange transactions.  The issuance of a BSP registration document entitles the investor or his representative to buy foreign exchange from authorized agent banks and/or their subsidiary/affiliate foreign exchange corporations for repatriation of capital and remittance of earnings that accrue on the registered investment.  Without such registration, the foreign investor can still repatriate capital and remit earnings on his investment but the foreign exchange will have to be sourced outside the banking system.