According to the statistics released today by the Monetary Authority of Macao, on 30 June 2017, investment of Macao residents (including individuals, the government and other legal entities but excluding Macao’s foreign exchange reserves) in securities issued by unrelated non-residents reached MOP582.6 billion at current market value, representing a rise of 20.2% from end-2016 or 31.5% from end-June 2016. Among the various instruments of portfolio investment, equity securities (including mutual funds and investment trust units), long-term debt securities and short-term debt securities were valued at MOP210.9 billion, MOP361.0 billion and MOP10.8 billion respectively. As compared with end-2016, equity securities and long-term debt securities rose by 14.7% and 26.2% respectively, while short-term debt securities dropped by 28.0%.
By geographical distribution, the Asian region continued to occupy the largest share of Macao residents’ external portfolio investment, at 59.2%. The rest was mainly placed in the North Atlantic and Caribbean (14.4%), Europe (12.6%), North America (10.1%) and Oceania (3.1%).
Investment in securities issued by Mainland Chinese entities, including those securities listed on non-Mainland exchanges, continued to assume the leading position, occupying 42.5% of local residents’ portfolio investment outside Macao. Its market value increased by 32.1% from end-2016 to MOP247.4 billion. The investment consisted of MOP52.6 billion in equity securities, MOP190.6 billion in long-term debt securities and MOP4.2 billion in short-term debt securities, taking up 24.9%, 52.8% and 39.4% of the respective total. Meanwhile, although the share of investment in securities issued by Hong Kong entities fell from 13.6% to 12.6%, the corresponding market value rose by 11.5% to MOP73.4 billion, of which equity securities and long-term debt securities amounted to MOP49.6 billion and MOP20.2 billion respectively.
Macao residents’ portfolio investment in the North Atlantic and Caribbean continued to increase. The market value of investment in this region rose by 15.7% from end-2016 to MOP84.1 billion, whereas its share in the total investment abroad decreased from 15.0% to 14.4%; the market value of portfolio investment in the British Virgin Islands grew by 22.0% to MOP40.0 billion.
Investment in European securities rose by 0.4 percentage points in share from end-2016 to 12.6% and grew by 23.7% in market value to MOP73.7 billion. Among the European countries, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and the Netherlands took up larger portions, valued at MOP17.5 billion, MOP12.7 billion and MOP9.0 billion respectively.
The bulk of investment in North America was placed in the United States. The market value of Macao residents’ investment in US securities rose by 15.8% from end-2016 to MOP54.2 billion but its share in the total portfolio investment abroad dropped from 9.7% to 9.3%. The investment in US mutual funds and investment trust units grew by 22.8% to MOP15.5 billion, assuming the top position in this investment category.
The market value of Macao residents’ investment in countries along the “Belt and Road” excluding Mainland China rose by 9.1% from end-2016 to MOP19.0 billion, equivalent to 3.3% of the total portfolio investment abroad. Meanwhile, the market value of portfolio investment in Portuguese-speaking countries was MOP174 million, which was placed in securities issued by entities in Brazil and Portugal.
The compilation of Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey (CPIS), jointly conducted by the Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM) and the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), follows the methodology advocated by the International Monetary Fund.