But while March's outflows were not good, the quarter remained in positive territory
Canadian securities saw $19.1 billion of foreign investment outflows in March, the latest month of data reported by Statistics Canada.
The net outflow from Canadian securities was the largest since September 2022 and snapped a five-month run of investment totalling $53.5 billion.
Meanwhile, Canadian investors pulled a net $5.6 billion from foreign securities, the fourth consecutive monthly divestment.
The stats mean international transactions in securities posted a net outflow of $13.5 billion of funds.
However, the first quarter of 2023 generated a net inflow of $15.4 billion despite foreign investors cutting their exposure to Canadian securities by $8 billion, marking the first quarterly divestment since the second quarter of 2019.
What was divested?
The March reduction of foreign holdings of Canadian securities was driven by an almost $15 billion cut from debt securities, mostly due to retirements of corporate paper although government debt exposure was also lower.
Foreign investors pulled back from Canadian equities too, with $4.4 billion divested, mostly in the banking sector.
For Canadian investors, US shares were the main divestment (of $11.4 billion) while this was offset to some degree by acquisition of foreign debt securities ($3 billion) and non-US foreign shares ($2.8 billion).
The quarter ended up with divestment of foreign securities by Canadian investors of $23.4 billion, the first quarterly divestment in a year.
