But where were investors targeting their mutual fund, ETF investments?
Canadian mutual funds saw a sharp slowdown of sales in March compared to the previous month, while ETFs also posted lower net sales.
The latest stats from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) reveal that net sales for mutuals remained positive last month, but at $0.2 billion the figure was well below the previous month’s $3.2 billion bonanza. February had snapped an eleven month run of net redemptions.
The lower net sales for March was driven by $2.8 billion net redemptions for balanced funds compared to $871 million net redemption in February, and $107 million net redemptions for money market funds, more than doubling the $40 million figure in February.
Sales were driven by bonds, with $1.7 billion in net sales, although this was lower than February’s $1.8 billion net sales. Bond funds have been the largest source of mutual fund inflows and the best-selling asset category for the past four months, prior to which it was money market funds leading the charge.
Equity fund net sales fell in March to $722 million, less than half of February’s $1.5 billion, and specialty funds declined to $626 million net sales from $777 million in the previous month.
Year to date net sales were $2.6 billion compared to net redemptions of $175 million for the same period of 2023.
Mutual fund total assets remained above $2 trillion at the end of March having increased by $43.1 billion or 2.1% month-over-month.
ETF gains
Meanwhile, exchange-traded funds continued their dominance of the Canadian investment fund inflows with $4 billion net sales, down from February’s $5.5 billion.
Only specialty funds posted net redemptions, of $109 million compared to net sales in February od $22 million. Money market funds managed to edge into net sales ($1 million) following $207 million net redemptions in the previous month.
The other asset classes all saw smaller net sales month-over-month: $2.9 billion for equities (down from $4 billion), $701 million for bonds (down from $1.2 billion), and $427 million for balanced (down from $450 million).
Year to date, equity funds accounted for 74.1% of total net sales for ETFs while total net sales were $12.6 billion, up from $10.5 billion a year earlier.
ETF assets totalled $417.1 billion at the end of March, up by $13.4 billion or 3.3% since February.
