Canada’s mutual funds edge up in May

The increase comes mainly from a significant rise in net sales

Canada’s mutual funds edge up in May
The Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) has reported that the assets under management (AUM) for the country’s mutual funds have reached $1.43 trillion. Year-to-date, the industry’s AUM has grown by $89.4 billion or 6.7%.

That growth was reflected in the IFIC’s mutual fund industry overview for May. According to the report, net sales for the month were $4.3 billion — a nearly 60% acceleration over April’s net sales of $2.728 billion.

Looking at sales by asset class, balanced funds experienced the most inflows, gathering $3.22 billion in net sales for the month. Bond funds were a distant second, with around $887 million in net sales. Specialty funds and equity funds followed, with around $262 billion and $151 billion in net sales, respectively.

Money-market funds sustained outflows for the second month in a row, with some $217 million in redemptions for May. Year-to-date redemptions for the fund class were $412 million.

Growth in AUM has not kept pace with net sales. Assets under management in May were just under $10 million more than the $1.42 trillion reported in April.

Compared to April, the AUM for most asset classes of mutual funds in May did not grow more than $2 billion. Balanced funds were the only exception, with their AUM rising by some $8.3 billion over their April AUM of $735.3 billion.

The year-to-date increase in AUM for equity funds was $30.5 billion (7.1%). For balanced funds, it was $49.3 billion (7.1%), and bond funds’ AUM grew by $11.6 billion (6.7%). Year-to-date AUM growth for specialty funds reached $1.2 billion (10%).

Money-market funds lost around $400 million (1.6%) year-to-date.

Year-over-year, Canadian mutual funds’ overall AUM has risen by roughly $160 million.
 

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