Hot money inflows hit $4.6b

FOREIGN investments in local stocks and securities, also called hot money, yielded a net inflow of $4.6 billion in 2010, up 12 times from just $388 million in 2009.

The Bangko Sentral said the 2010 figure was “the highest recorded for the past seven years and surpassing the previous record of $3.5 billion in 2007.”

Data showed that gross foreign portfolio investment inflows more than doubled to $13 billion in 2010 from just $6.3 billion in 2009 while gross outflows rose to $8.39 billion from $5.95 billion.

Investments in shares in the Philippine Stock Exchange with a 65-percent share of the total, jumped 75 percent to $8.5 billion last year from $4.8 billion in 2009.

Contributing to the strong inflows were two major initial public offerings by Cebu Air Inc. and Nickel Asia Corp.

“The bullish stock market performance in 2010 resulted from positive investor sentiment with the assumption of a new administration and strong macroeconomic fundamentals on the domestic front, inspiring greater confidence in the country vis-à-vis sovereign debt concerns in the euro zone, the benign economic outlook for the United States and China, and the effects of the geopolitical risks within the Korean peninsula,” the Bangko Sentral said.

Government securities accounted for $4.5 billion of these foreign funds while peso time deposits and money market instruments posted $503 million in inflows. Placements in peso time deposits grew fourfold in 2010.

Top sources of foreign funds last year were the United States, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and Hong Kong. –Roderick T. dela Cruz, Manila Standard Today