THE recovery of so-called hot money investments into the country’s financial markets continued for a second consecutive month at the end of August due largely to good quarterly earnings reported by local publicly-listed firms, according to the central bank.
In a press statement, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas revealed that net inflows of portfolio investments reached $225.85 million last month, which was a significant improvement over the $53.29 million net inflows in July and the $516.12 million in outflows for June.
Since the beginning of the year, local financial markets have so far recorded net inflows of $602.01 million, in sharp contrast with the $318.88 million in net outflows during the same eight-month period last year.
“This may be attributed to investors’ reaction to good second quarter corporate earnings results, the forthcoming infrastructure initiatives of the government, and the recent resumption of trade talks between the US and China which all lifted market sentiments,” the central bank said.
Registered investments for the month of August alone amounted to $1.1 billion, reflecting a 16.9-percent improvement from the $959 million figure in July. Likewise, a 19.7 percent year-on-year growth may be noted from the $936 million level recorded during the previous year.
The United Kingdom, US, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Luxembourg were the top five investor economies for the month, with combined share to total at 80.5 percent.