By Lee C. Chipongian

The central bank registered $226 million worth of net foreign portfolio investments in August, up from only $53 million in July as investor sentiments improved on positive corporate earnings in the second quarter.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) attributed the higher “hot money” net inflows to the government infrastructure projects that are underway and those that are upcoming. The BSP also cited the recent resumption of trade talks between the US and China which “all lifted market sentiments.”

The BSP registered $1.12 billion of total inflows in August, up 16.9 percent from $959 million in July. It was also 19.7 percent higher compared to same time in 2017 of $936 million.

The top five investment source countries during the period are the United Kingdom, US, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Luxembourg with combined share to total of 80.5 percent.

The BSP said about 79.9 percent of these inflows were invested in listed stocks such as property companies, holding firms, banks, food, beverage and tobacco firms, and telecommunication companies.

The rest of investment portfolio or 19.4 percent were placed in peso government securities worth $180 million and the other one percent in peso denominated debt instruments or $6 million and peso time deposits of $1 million.

Total outflows, in the meantime, amounted to $895 million, it was down by 1.2 percent from July’s $906 million and by 9.9 percent from August 2017’s $994 million.

The BSP said the “US continued to be the main destination of outflows, receiving 81.5 percent of total remittances.”

The BSP expect foreign portfolio flows to remain in the negative of or a net outflow of $900 million at the end of this year. In 2017, it was also a net outflow of $800 million.