Mutual fund, ETF assets take a hit from rough markets

Investment fund assets dropped sharply in April alongside tumultuous markets, according to new data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC).

Mutual fund assets under management (AUM) dropped by 4.4% last month to $1.9 trillion.

IFIC’s latest monthly data showed that balanced fund assets fell from $985 billion in March to $943.6 billion in April.

Equity fund AUM was down from $719.4 billion to $682.3 billion, and bond fund assets slipped from $247.7 billion to $239.3 billion.

As assets dropped by $87.5 billion, mutual funds also saw sales turn negative. IFIC reported that funds recorded $4.9 billion in net redemptions in April.

Balanced funds led the way with $2.05 billion in net redemptions, down from $272 million in net sales in March.

Equity funds recorded $697 million in redemptions last month after having almost $1.1 billion in net sales in March.

Bond funds fell further into the red, with redemptions rising from $503 million in March to $1.75 billion in April.

Alongside the market-driven drop in mutual fund AUM, ETF assets also fell by 4.5% in the month, dropping by $14.7 billion to $310 billion.

The bulk of the decline in ETF assets came in the equity category, which saw AUM drop from $213 billion to $202.1 billion in April.

However, ETFs stayed in positive sales territory, IFIC reported, generating net sales of almost $1 billion. This was down sharply from $4.6 billion in net sales the previous month, though.

Equity ETFs recorded $539 million in net sales, down from $2.2 billion in March. Bond ETFs dropped from $1.5 billion in March to $322 million in April, and balanced ETF sales slipped from $238 million to $125 million.

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.