Philippine foreign portfolio investments, or "hot money," posted a net inflow of 43.95 million U.S. dollars in June, the local central bank said Thursday.

The Philippine central bank said in a statement that the net inflow in June was turnaround from the net outflow of 84.91 million U.S. dollars recorded in the same period last year. However, net inflows of hot money last month were lower than the 545 million U.S. dollars registered in May.

This is the third consecutive month that the country recorded net hot money inflows as funds are finding their way back into emerging countries amid an improving market sentiment.

About three-fourths of the investments were put into Philippine Stock Exchange-listed securities, which are primarily holding firms; banks; property companies; food, beverage and tobacco firms; and telecommunication companies.

The local central bank said the remaining 24.7 percent of the inflows were invested into peso-denominated government securities.

The United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, and Luxembourg were the top five investor countries in June. The U.S. remained as the main destination of outflows last month.

In the first half of the year, foreign portfolio investments summed up to a net outflow of 1.37 billion U.S. dollars, a reversal of the 1.49 billion U.S. dollars net inflow recorded in the same period last year.

The Philippine central bank has projected net hot money inflows to reach 1.5 billion U.S. dollars this year, 64 percent lower than last year's 4.22 billion U.S. dollars. Endi

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