Industry figures show marked increase over previous month while mutual fund sales dipped
Canadian investment funds continued to take in assets in July, with inflows into ETFs showing ever-greater strength.
According to the latest monthly figures from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC), Canadian ETFs recorded net sales of $7.3 billion in July, significantly exceeding the $4.1 billion recorded for the previous month.
Bond ETFs led the trend with $3.3 billion in net sales last month, a tremendous pick-up from the June record of $1 billion. Equity strategies were a close second in July with $3.1 billion, followed distantly by specialty ETFs ($315 million) and balanced ETFs ($140 million). Money-market ETFs, meanwhile, logged $420 million in net sales.
Equity strategies continued to top the ETF net-asset rankings at the end of July with $139.6 billion in AUM. Bond ETFs had a collective AUM of $74.7 billion; balanced, specialty, and money-market ETFs held $5.9 billion, $4.9 billion, and $6.7 billion, respectively.
Aggregate demand for Canadian mutual funds underwent an apparent dip last month, with net sales registered at $3.4 billion compared to $3.9 billion in June.
Bond mutual funds remained the overwhelming favourite, taking in $2.6 billion in net sales just as equity funds shed $87 million in redemptions overall. Balanced funds saw $203 million in net sales, while specialty funds netted $526 million. Money-market funds, meanwhile, soaked up a modest $154 million.
From an asset perspective, balanced funds led with $819.9 billion in AUM at the end of July, followed by equity funds with $522.8 million and bond funds with $232 billion. Specialty funds had $30.1 billion, while money-market funds AUM stood at $37.2 billion.
