Foreign portfolio investments or hot money fled from the local equities market in November, with a net outflow of $68.79 million, a reversal of the $369.9-million net inflow a year ago.
Fund managers concerned with the impending interest rates hike in the United States pulled out their investments from the local market last month.
Data from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed that in the first 11 months, hot money registered a net outflow of $429 million, lower than a net outflow of $707 million a year ago.
“Investors reacted to the weak third-quarter corporate earnings report; renewed concerns on the prospects of interest rates hike in the US; and, this volume of transactions were brought by trading holidays,” Bangko Sentral said in a statement.
Foreign portfolio investments are overseas funds that are temporarily invested in local stocks, government securities and money market. These are also called “hot money” because of the ease they are invested in and taken out of the local markets.
Inflows fell 39.4 percent to $1.08 billion in November from $1.79 billion in the same month last year while outflows also declined 19 percent to $1.15 billion from $1.42 billion.