Mutual funds continued to see net redemptions last month
The latest stats on Canadian investment fund sales have been revealed this morning (July 23) and show a new milestone for exchange-traded funds.
The data from the Investment Fund Institute of Canada show that net sales of ETFs soared to a new all-time high of $10.1 billion with positive sales in every category. The total is a big leap from May’s $4.4. billion net sales.
Bonds were the driver of the new record figure, accounting for more than half of ETF sales in the month and year-to-date. The $5.35 billion net sales in this asset class is up significantly from the $1.3 billion recorded in May.
There were also notable increases month-over-month for speciality ETFs – rising from $14 million in May to $387 million in June – and for money market funds which surged to $1.1 billion last month. Sales for equity ($2.8 billion) and balanced ($399 million) ETFs were up by more modest amounts.
Year-to-date, ETFs have posted net sales of $32.6 billion compared to $18.1 billion in the same period of 2023.
ETF assets totalled $440.5 billion at the end of June, up by $11.3 billion or 2.6% since May. In June 2023 the total was $348 billion.
Mutual funds
Meanwhile, Canadian mutual funds posted net redemptions of $1.9 billion in June, in line with May’s $1.8 billion.
The big story for mutuals was a surge of inflows to money market funds which saw net sales of $3 billion in June compared to May’s $464 million. This represented the largest inflows for these funds since March 2020, with 72% of all money market funds reporting positive inflows.
There were positive outcomes for bonds ($1.2 billion) and specialty ($473 million) but both were down from the previous month, while the remaining mutual fund asset classes recorded net redemptions, of $4 billion for balanced and $2.6 billion for equities.
Despite continued challenges for mutuals, the year-to-date net redemptions of $3 billion are well below the $12.8 billion net redemptions of the same period in 2023.
Mutual fund assets totalled $2.1 trillion at the end of June, up by $14.2 billion or 0.7% since May. In June 2023 the total was $1.9 trillion.
