Foreign portfolio transactions in the Philippines reversed to overall net inflows of 60 million U.S. dollars in October, a turnaround from the 807 million U.S. dollars net outflows recorded in the previous month, the local central bank said Thursday.

The figure also reflected an improvement from last year's net inflows of 28 million U.S. dollars.

Registered investments for the month reached 1.6 billion U.S. dollars, 28.2 percent higher than the 1.3 billion U.S. dollars in September, but 0.9 percent lower compared to a year ago level.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas attributed the improvement mainly to brighter growth projections by Moody's Investors Service for the Philippines, in recognition of the country's sound macroeconomic and fiscal fundamentals, coupled with renewed investor interest in peso government securities.

Outflows for the month declined by 24.4 percent from 2.1 billion U.S. dollars the previous month, and by 2.9 percent from 1.6 billion U.S. dollars last year.

Year-to-date transactions yielded overall net inflows of 1.3 billion U.S. dollars in contrast to net outflows of 360 million U.S. dollars for the same period last year.

About 76.1 percent of investments registered in October were in PSE-listed securities; 21.8 percent were investments in peso government securities; and the 2.1 percent balance went to Peso time deposits.

The United Kingdom, United States, Singapore, Malaysia, and Luxembourg were the top five investor countries for the month, with combined share to total of 74.1 percent. The United States continued to be the main destination of outflows, receiving 88.4 percent of total remittances.