Mutual funds posted their second-largest monthly net sales in history
Canada’s exchange-traded funds industry passed a new milestone towards the end of 2024 as assets smashed through $500 billion thanks to continued strong sales and market performance.
Data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada shows a $28.4 billion or 5.8% increase month-over-month in the asset total in November to $515.5 billion. Equity ETFs made up the largest single asset class at $325.8 billion, a $21 billion gain from the previous month and more than $100 billion higher than in November 2023.
Balanced, bond, speciality, and money market ETF assets all increased month-over-month and year-over-year.
Sales of Canadian ETFs remained strong in November too with $9 billion net sales (up from $8.4 billion in October), driven by $6.6 billion for equities (up from $4.5 billion in October). Bond ETF net sales tumbled to $979 million from $2.9 billion in the previous month. Money market funds posted net sales of $461 million (up from $87 million) and specialty posted $446 million (up from $327 million). Balanced ETFs had net sales of $653 million, just shy of October’s $591 million.
With net sales of $64.6 billion up to the end of November, this was a new record for the first 11 months of a year having surpassed the same period of 2021 during Covid recovery.
Mutual funds
The IFIC stats also reveal another strong month for Canadian mutual funds which saw total assets rise to $2.3 trillion in November 2024, up $78.8 billion or 3.6% month-over-month.
These funds recorded net sales of $4.6 billion, up from $3.6 billion in the previous month and marking the second-largest mutual fund monthly net sales in history with all major asset classes generating inflows.
Bonds were the largest asset class for mutual funds with net sales of almost $2 billion, although this was down more than $1 billion from the previous month. Two asset classes reversed monthly net redemptions in October to record net sales in November: Balanced ($493 million vs. -$223 million) and Equity ($678 million vs. -$103 million).
Meanwhile, speciality funds improved monthly net sales by around $90 million to a total $733 million, and money market funds saw a 10x gain on the previous month with net sales of $685 million (vs. $62 million in October).
