Mutual fund, ETF assets drop in August: IFIC

With another choppy month for markets, mutual fund and ETF assets declined in August, according to the latest data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC).

Mutual fund assets under management (AUM) dropped by 2.0% in August, losing $37.6 billion in assets, IFIC said.

The decline in assets was mostly driven by markets, but funds also recorded $3.1 billion in monthly net redemptions.

Balanced funds led the way with $2.4 billion worth of redemptions, although this represented an improvement from the previous month, when funds in the balanced category had almost $3.3 billion in redemptions.

Equity fund redemptions also improved notably in August, dropping from $1.4 billion in July to $338 million.

However, the bond category saw redemptions edge higher in the month, rising from $308 million to $379 million.

Through the first eight months of the year, long-term mutual funds have now recorded $13.1 billion in redemptions, compared with $96.9 billion in net sales for the same period last year.

For ETFs, the industry trade group reported that assets declined 1.6% in August, a loss of $5.0 billion.

However, net sales were still positive for the month, at $1.5 billion, which was essentially unchanged from the previous month.

In fact, equity ETFs enjoyed a sharp turnaround in August, producing almost $1.2 billion in net sales, reversing $730 million in net redemptions the previous month.

On the other hand, bond ETF sales reversed the other way, swinging to $347 million in net redemptions, after recording $719 million in net sales in July.

The balanced and specialty categories posted modest net sales in August, with money-market ETFs adding the rest of the monthly total, $594 million worth.

Year to date, overall ETF net sales are down compared with last year, but still positive at $19.0 billion. In the same period last year, net sales totalled $40.7 billion.

James Langton

James is a senior reporter for Advisor.ca and its sister publication, Investment Executive. He has been reporting on regulation, securities law, industry news and more since 1994.