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By Maricel E. Burgonio, Reporter
Net foreign portfolio investments
rose to significant levels in end-March 2007 with the bulk of the
money going into the Philippine stock market, Bangko Sentral ng
Pilipinas said on Thursday.
BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco
Jr., said net portfolio investment inflows grew 71 percent on year
to $838 million in January to March this year from $490 million in
the same period last year.
Gross investment inflows rose by
139 percent from year-ago level, with $2.803 billion, or 80 percent
of the total going into listed shares at thePhilippine Stock
Exchange and $1.734 billion into property, telecommunication and
banking sectors.
About $2.116 billion, or 60
percent of these remittances came from the United Kingdom, the
United States and Singapore.
“These investments were funded
by fresh remittances of foreign exchange converted into pesos
through banks operating in the Philippines,” Tetangco said.
Investments in peso-denominated
government securities, mostly Fixed Rate Treasury Notes, or FXTNs,
in the amount of $606.13 million accounted for 17 percent, while
investments in money market instruments of $1.27 million and peso
bank deposits of $104.07 million had a combined share of 3 percent.
For the month of March this year,
the net inflow from foreign portfolio investments amoun-ted to
$173.21 million.
Tetangco said the net weekly
outflows in the first half of the month resulted from huge global
equities sell-offs triggered by losses suffered by the China and US
stock markets. However, these were more than offset by the net
weekly inflows in the second half.
Inflation continued to slow down
to 2.6 percent in February while the budget deficit declined to
P18.6 billion in the first two months of the year vis-à-vis P40.4
billion last year after a surplus of P11.1 billion in February.
Gross inflows of registered
foreign portfolio investments aggregated $1.254 billion, of which a
large portion worth $969.56 million, or 77 percent consisted of PSE-listed
shares of banks and property, telecommunication and transportation
services companies.
Government securities, primarily
FXTNs, accounted for 22 percent at $269.00 million while placements
in money market instruments and peso bank deposits made up the
remaining 1 percent at $15.16 million.
These inflows exceeded capital
repatriations/outflows of $1.081 billion, which pertained to
divestments from listed shares of $447.68 million and government
securities of $308.04 million as well as withdrawals of money market
placements of $4.63 million and peso deposits of $320.16 million. 
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