Foreign investments posted a higher net outflow in April at $312 million from $236 million, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.

This resulted from gross outflows of foreign investments of $1.2 billion exceeding gross inflows of $914 million registered with the BSP through authorized banks.

Broken down, gross outflows declined by 25.4 percent in April from $1.6 billion in March.

The BSP said foreign investments were mostly directed to the US with $527 million or 43 percent of the total outflows.

March still posts inflow

Meanwhile, gross inflows decreased by 35.1 percent from $1.4 billion in March.

Foreign investors placed their funds mostly in equities listed with the Philippine Stock Exchange. These amounted to $544 million or 59.5 percent of gross inflows.

The top industries with the most investments were banks, holding firms, property, transportation, and food, beverage and tobacco.

The remaining $370 million or 40.5 percent of gross inflows consisted of peso government securities.

However, from January to April, the BSP said foreign investment transactions resulted in net inflows of $65 million. This was a reversal of the $680 million recorded in the same period last year.

First Metro Investment Corp. (FMIC) said the local stock index could grow from 6,700.49 in April to a range of 7,000 to 7,500 in the second half of the year.

“The expected BSP policy rate cut in August provides additional support to this view,” FMIC said.

FMIC said industries should sustain growth in profits in the next quarters as it expects inflation to be near 3 percent by August from 3.8 percent in April.

“While April has not favored bond and equity risk-taking, the recovery in May likely due to expected cut in BSP policy rates in August and to first-quarter earnings much above expectations portends a more promising second half,” it said.