IFIC stats reveal that ETFs continued their strong sales trend
The most recent figures for Canadian investment fund sales show that mutual funds recorded a sharp slowdown in net redemptions in January.
Stats from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada reveal that net redemptions from mutual funds totalled $699 million in the month, down from more than $5 billion in the previous month, but still well below the $76 million in net sales recorded in January 2023.
Despite the overall negative figure, there were positive inflows for several mutual fund asset classes: bond ($3.7 billion), money market ($487 million), and specialty ($747 million). These three asset classes also saw net sales in December.
The total for bonds in January was a new record high in dollar terms, while equities posted net redemptions of more than $1 billion while balanced funds saw withdrawals of $4.5 billion.
Mutual fund assets gained again, the third consecutive monthly increase, to a total of $1.95 trillion. This was a 0.8% month-over-month gain amounting to $15.6 billion.
ETF net sales
The positive trajectory for ETFs continued in January, although at slower pace than in the previous month.
Total net sales were $3.2 billion with all asset classes recording positive inflows except for speciality which posted net redemptions of $345 million, mostly due to withdrawals from Bitcoin funds.
Equity ETFs had net sales of $2.4 billion (just over 75% of total ETF net sales), balanced saw $403 million, bonds $321 million, and money market funds $401 million.
ETF assets totalled $388.3 billion at the end of January, up by $5.4 billion or 1.4% since December.
