Canadian mutual funds got off to a roaring start this year as ETF sales slowed down, reports IFIC
Canada’s mutual-fund industry staged a sales comeback last year, and it has started off the new decade with a bang, according to statistics reported by the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC).
In the latest edition of its monthly investment fund statistics report, the industry group said that Canadian mutual funds saw net sales of around $5.94 billion in January; that’s more than double the $2.86 billion recorded in December.
Bond funds were the biggest winners, taking in a net total of $2.78 billion for the month; balanced funds followed closely with a net aggregate influx of $2.5 billion. Net sales for specialty funds and equity funds were reported at $522 million and $432 million, respectively.
Outside long-term fund categories, money-market mutual funds logged a net loss of $255 million. It was the only category of mutual funds that saw its net sales decelerate compared to December.
By the end of January, Canadian long-term mutual funds held $1.63 trillion in assets under management, while money-market funds had $31.4 billion.
On the ETF side, January inflows were dragged down by a month-on-month deceleration in fixed-income and stock ETFs. Bond ETFs saw $1.48 billion in net sales in January, compared to $1.62 billion the previous month; equity ETF sales went through an even more drastic slowdown, from $2.16 billion in December to $1.34 billion in the next period.
Net sales for ETFs with balanced strategy mandates increased from $182 million in December to $312 million last month; sales of specialty ETFs saw a more modest pickup from $102 million to $135 million. Outside long-term ETF fund categories, net sales for money-market ETFs cooled month-on-month, from $547 million to $448 million.
Overall, IFIC’s statistics showed $3.7 billion in net ETF sales for January. In comparison, a report from National Bank of Canada earlier this month said that ETF inflows for the month totalled $4.1 billion.
