Canadian mutual-fund assets trip on market performance

Despite positive inflows, the industry has reported overall declines

Canadian mutual-fund assets trip on market performance
The Canadian mutual-fund industry lost $13.6 billion in assets under management in the month of June, according to new figures from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC).

For the month ending June 30, Canadian mutual funds experienced a 0.95% month-on-month decline to $1.41 trillion due to declines in the markets.

The market declines overpowered positive overall net flows for the month. Equity funds attracted $412.3 million in June, but AUM in the segment decreased by $7.5 million to end at $454.1 million. Despite inflows exceeding $3 billion, AUM for balanced funds decreased by $3.4 million, inching down to $737.6 million. And net sales of roughly $1.5 billion for bond funds could not prevent a marginal net loss of around $0.2 million that brought AUM down to $185.7 million.

Specialty funds bucked the trend. The segment managed to reach $13.4 million in AUM by gaining approximately $200,000 in value — though it’s a meager gain compared to the $381 million in net sales for June.

Short-term funds were also fortunate in a way. The segment experienced net redemptions of $192.7 million, but the lost only $0.3 million in AUM for the month.

The story for Canadian mutual funds is rosier from a more long-term perspective. Year-to-date net sales were positive across all classes of long-term funds. Total mutual fund assets also increased by $147.7 billion or 11.7% when compared to June 2016 levels. Net sales of $5.2 billion in June also easily exceeded the $1.5 billion in net inflows that the industry managed in June 2016.


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