Flows into ETFs cool to $1.1B in September

Flows into Canadian-listed ETFs hit $1.1 billion in September after reaching $2.8 billion in August, according to a report from National Bank of Canada.

Fixed income ETFs raked in $1 billion last month, spread across a variety of categories: corporate bonds, government bonds, emerging market bonds and aggregate bonds.

Equity ETFs, meanwhile, experienced a modest outflow of $85 million in September. National Bank suggested “profit-taking” may have been at play, as BMO’s S&P 500 ETF and iShares’ Canadian technology ETF “both exceeded pre-pandemic highs but bled assets.”

“The tech sector and the U.S. market each experienced higher volatility and declines in September, which might have prompted some investors to take money off the table to lock the gains,” National Bank said in the report.

Commodity ETFs had a small inflow of $52 million. National Bank suggested that enthusiasm for gold “may be slowing down” now that the price of gold has dropped to just over $1,900 an ounce after topping $2,000 in August.

Some gold bullion ETFs had reduced inflows or experienced outflows, while gold equity ETFs experienced their second straight month of outflows in September.

Multi-asset ETFs attracted inflows of $159 million last month. Eight new asset-allocation funds — four from iShares, one from Vanguard and three from Mackenzie — launched in September.

In total, there were 23 new product launches in September. One new ETF provider, NCM Investments, launched a fund that invests in global equities.

Staff

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