Mutual fund, ETF assets steady in July

In a volatile year, fund assets edged up slightly in the month of July, while investors continued to redeem equities funds, according to data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC).

Mutual fund assets totalled $1.9 trillion at the end of July, an increase of $76.2 billion or 4.3% compared to June, IFIC said in a release on Thursday.

Balanced mutual funds ended the month with nearly $917 billion in assets, followed by equities funds ($662 billion) and bond funds ($235 billion). Money market fund assets increased slightly.

Mutual funds recorded net redemptions of $4.5 billion in July, compared to redemptions of $10.4 billion the previous month.

Balanced mutual funds lost the most, at $3.3 billion, followed by equities funds (-$1.4 billion) and bond funds (-$311 million). Money market funds had net sales of $500 million.

ETF assets totalled $303.7 billion at the end of July — an increase of $14.8 billion or 5.1% compared to the previous month. Equities funds accounted for well over half, at about $194 billion, and bond ETFs accounted for nearly $78 billion.

ETFs recorded net sales of $1.5 billion in July, compared to redemptions of $670 million in June. Money market ETFs led sales, with $938 million.

Equities ETFs were the only category with redemptions, with $730 million worth.

Staff

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