Investors backtracked from Canadian mutual funds to the tune of $1.5B last month

There was a sharp swing in to net sales for equities ($372 million) which saw net redemptions of $2.4 billion in March while specialty net sales were more than halved to $438 million from $974 million.

Mutual fund assets totalled $2.218 trillion at the end of April, down by $39.6 billion or 1.8% since March.

Canadian ETFs meanwhile continued their strength despite market volatility. They recorded net sales of $7.2 billion in April, almost half the $13.9 billion in March, and driven by $4.9 billion of inflows into equity ETFs where three-quarters of net sales went to global and international funds. The equity class was down from $6.4 billion in the previous month.

All asset classes posted net sales, although bonds were down sharply to just $104 million from $4 billion in March, and money market funds dropped from $2.1 billion to $888 million. Balanced funds gained $1 million to $629 from March while speciality recorded net sales of $737 million from $641 million.

ETF assets totalled $546.4 billion at the end of April, down by $0.5 billion or 0.1 per cent since March.