Industry reports net redemptions across categories with AUM levels shrinking by 10%
March was a hard month for the Canadian investment industry as a combination of broad market selloffs and investor redemptions decimated assets held in ETFs and mutual funds.
In its latest monthly statistics report, the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) found that between February and March, mutual fund net assets declined by 10%, from $1.6 trillion to roughly $1.4 trillion.
Over the period, assets declined from $5.3 billion to $4.7 billion for balanced funds; $124.6 billion to $110.7 billion for equity funds, and $71.2 billion to $66.2 billion for bond funds.
The decrease in assets came partly because of redemptions observed across nearly all categories of long-term funds, with investors pulling out $18 billion in total. Net redemptions amounted to $11 billion from balanced funds, $702 million from equity funds, and $6.7 billion from bond funds.
ETFs also lost a significant portion of their assets, as total AUM in Canada-listed ETFs shrank from $210.3 billion in February to $190 billion in March. Assets in balanced funds went from $5.3 billion to $4.7 billion over the month; equity ETF assets declined from $124.6 billion to around $110.7 billion, while bond ETF assets sagged from $71.2 billion to $66.2 billion.
Total net sales for ETFs underwent a significant month-on-month slowdown, from $8 billion in February to just under $3 billion last month.
Balanced ETFs saw net sales amounting to $124 million last month, less than half of the previous month’s total of $264 million. Equity funds held up relatively better, with net sales slipping from $4.9 billion to $4.2 billion.
Meanwhile, investor sentiment appeared to reverse sharply on bond ETFs as February’s $2.8-billion net sales record was followed by $1.2 billion in net outflows. Specialty funds also experienced an exodus, with net outflows of $139 million reported last month.
