Latest SIMA stats reveals the highs and lows for investment funds in October
A surge in investor activity helped propel Canada’s investment fund industry forward in October with both mutual funds and ETFs reporting strong gains and extending the steady momentum seen earlier in the year.
According to new figures from the Securities and Investment Management Association (SIMA), mutual fund assets reached $2.5 trillion, rising $30.7 billion from September and achieving a new high. Net sales totaled $4.2 billion, reflecting firm demand across long-term categories and up from the previous month’s $3.8 billion total.
Within mutual funds, bond strategies again topped the charts with almost $2.7 billion in net sales (up from $2.2 billion in September), balanced funds added $1.8 billion (up from $1 billion), and specialty funds gained $1.1 billion (up from $670 million).
However, equity mutual funds remained under pressure, posting almost $1.3 billion in net redemptions compared to net sales of $49 million in September, while money-market mutual funds posted net redemptions of $130 million, improving on the $228 million net redemptions in the previous month.
ETFs continued to dominate though in October with net sales of $9.7 billion, although this followed an even stronger September, when ETF net sales climbed to roughly $12.4 billion, marking the largest monthly asset increase of the year to that point.
Equity ETFs led October inflows with $5.3 billion (down from $5.8 billion in September), followed by $2 billion into bond ETFs (down from $3.7 billion). Year to date, equity ETFs accounted for 51% of total net sales, and bond ETFs for 24%.
Balanced ETFs added $1.3 billion in October (up from $1 billion) while specialty ETFs brought in $1.4 billion (down from $1.7 billion). Money-market ETFs were the lone laggard, posting redemptions of $197 million, flipping from net sales of $236 million in September.
SIMA noted that mutual fund assets have grown by $302 billion since the spring, while ETF assets have expanded by $136 billion over the same period.
