Canadian ETFs rose to high of $157B in May: report

By Staff | June 5, 2018 | Last updated on June 5, 2018
2 min read

Equity ETFs attracted the highest inflows in May, says the latest ETF report by National Bank.

Inflows for ETFs in Canada were $1.8 billion last month, which brought the total assets to a new $157 billion high.

While fixed income ETFs saw a strong month with the launch of new, actively-managed funds, investors started to lose their enthusiasm for international and emerging market equity ETFs, the report said.

Many fixed income and multi-asset ETFs launched this year and attracted investors with low fees or a unique mandate, National Bank said. The inflows for commodity ETFs were flat in May, while technology has seen four straight months of inflows.

Canada’s financial sector saw outflows for the second month in a row. “It seems that strong earning season results are still overshadowed by the Canadian household indebtedness and NAFTA concerns,” the report said.

In total, 20 new ETFs launched in May.

Canadian ETFs have attracted $10 billion in inflows in the first five months of 2018. Equity accounted for most of the inflows, with international equity leading the way, the report said.

Read the full report here.

Read: ETF Sector on TSX hit $150B AUM high in April

U.S. ETF inflows

U.S. ETFs had a net inflow of $31 billion in May, said an accompanying report by National Bank. The demand was strong for equity ETFs after the U.S. stock market had its first positive month since February’s selloff and investors put $27 billion into equity ETFs.

Technology ETFs did well in terms of performance and inflows because of the strong earnings and bullish market sentiment for the FAANG stocks, the report said, while international, developed and emerging market ETFs suffered outflows after “softer readings of European data” and geopolitical uncertainties. Half of the total flow to the ETFs came from U.S. government bonds.

Read the report here.

Also read:

Global public assets rise by $2.5T in 2017: report

Increasing number of Canadian institutions using ETFs

Advisor.ca staff

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.