Canadian equity issuance slumped in 2010, but debt deals were up, according to year-end numbers from Thomson Reuters.

The firm reports that Canadian equity and equity-related issuance was down about 25% last year, totalling $36.0 billion from 631 issues. However, proceeds from initial public offerings were up sharply to $6.5 billion, exceeding the previous year’s totals by 232.9%.

At the same time, Canadian debt issuance rose 9.5% year over year in 2010. Excluding self-funded transactions, total debt issuance reached $162.7 billion from 376 deals, Thomson Reuters reported.

Corporations drove the increase in debt markets. Domestic corporate debt issues raised $61.8 billion in 2010, which was a 27.2% increase over 2009. Whereas, total government debt issuance slipped a little bit to $96.1 billion for the year, down 2.6% compared to 2009.

Financials dominated the corporate debt issuance market, accounting for 33.1% of the overall total, trailing only governments, which represented almost 53% of the market. The energy & power sector was a distant third place with 5.1% of the market.

On the equity side, the energy & power sector was the most active in the fourth quarter, accounting for 35% of the new issue activity ($12.3 billion worth). The materials sector was a close second at $11.7 billion, a 33% market share, followed by real estate at $4 billion.

BMO Capital Markets captured the top equity bookrunner position for the year, Thomson Reuters said, with $3.9 billion from 55 deals. GMP Capital Corp. was a close second, with a total of $3.8 billion raised from 58 deals; and RBC Capital Markets wasn’t far behind either, with $3.7 billion from 55 deals.

GMP led the IPO underwriters and the common stock league tables. BMO topped the secondary offering market. CIBC World Markets was the leading underwriter of retail structured products and Scotia Capital led the preferred securities underwritings.

RBC led the debt underwriters for the year, with almost $38 billion raised from 127 deals. TD Securities ranked second and CIBC was third.