Latest industry figures hint at stock-market bullishness among ETF investors
The old adage “sell in May and go away” didn’t resonate with Canadian ETF investors this year, if the latest figures from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) are any indication.
In its latest Monthly Investment Fund Statistics report, IFIC said equity ETFs in Canada saw $3.8 billion in net sales last month, representing a 40% pick-up from $2.8 billion in April.
Bond ETF sales in May amounted to $1.8 billion, up from the $1.6 billion in sales the previous month. Meanwhile, balanced ETF sales dipped from $339 million to $284 million.
Overall, ETF net sales last month totalled $7.6 billion, trailing mutual funds which saw $8.4 billion in net sales.
Net sales in balanced mutual funds saw a moderate month-on-month decrease, from $4.6 billion in April to $4.2 billion in May.
Equity fund sales clocked in at $3.3 billion last month, down from $3.6 billion in April. Bond fund net sales also trended down, from $1.4 billion to $1.1 billion.
Despite decreases in mutual fund sales across the board, mutual fund net assets rose modestly from $1.88 trillion in April to $1.9 trillion in May.
Assets in balanced funds rose from $925 billion to $933 billion, while equity fund assets went from $659 billion to $662 billion. Bond fund assets, on the other hand, ticked up from $253 billion to $254 billion.
