Foreign portfolio investments, or ?hot money,? registered a net inflow of $221.59 million in January in stark contrast to an outflow in December, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported yesterday.

The central bank said in a statement that ?some optimism on the inauguration of the new US president and the deceleration in the inflation rate to 8 percent in December may have contributed to the low level of capital withdrawal for the period.?

Inflows in January hit $502.07 million while outflows amounted to $280.48 million.

Of the inflows, some $321.1 million were invested in shares listed in the stock exchange, mostly in shares of mining and telecommunication companies. About 36 percent, or $181 million, went into peso- denominated government securities.

The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Singapore were the top three investors, accounting for three-fourths of the total hot money investments for the month.

Of the outflows, 90 percent were withdrawn from money market instruments and peso bank deposits. Only 3 percent were tasken out from listed shares and 7 percent from government securities.

The global financial meltdown brought about risk aversion, with many investors taking their money out of emerging markets and putting them back into the US.

The central bank last year reported a net outflow of $1.39 billion in foreign portfolio investments, reducing the surplus in the balance of payments position to only $88 million for the year.