STATE-OWNED pension fund Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) is waiting for the right time to put in more funds in the local stock market as there is not enough volume for the agency to come in.

GSIS president and general manager Robert Vergara said the pension fund for government workers will wait for the market to correct itself before it will buy in.

“It’s difficult [to buy shares] this January because everybody just hit the buy button.  Foreigners have suddenly discovered the allure of the Philippine market. We haven’t had the chance to buy in yet. So we’ll wait for an opportunity to do it,” Vergara said.

Vergara, who was a fund manager in Hong Kong before being appointed to head the pension fund, said that it may deploy around two to three percent of its funds this year or between P11 billion to P20 billion

The GSIS is one of the biggest investors in the PSE.  Last year, it deployed around 11 percent of its funds or about P70 billion.

“I’m quite optimistic that this year will at least be better for the market. We will continue to opportunistically deploy more money in the equity markets and hopefully get our weightings up to 14 percent to 15 percent from the current 11 percent that we have,” Vergara said.

“It [the stock market] will always consolidate and correct. We’ll have an opportunity to buy then,” said Vergara.

Vergara believes that the government’s infrastructure investments will prop up the country’s economy this year amid external shocks such as the Euro debt crisis and a proposed bill in the United States Congress that limits outsourcing of services.

The country’s economy, as measured by the gross domestic product (GDP), grew by 3.7 percent last year, or slower than the government’s growth target of 4.5 to 5.5 percent.

The weaker economy is partly due to the government’s underspending last year, sluggish global trade and the impact of the series of natural calamities that struck in 2011.