Canadian investors pulled more than $8 billion from mutual funds in October, according to preliminary estimates from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.
IFIC reported that, based on a sample of preliminary data from some of its members, fund companies saw net redemptions estimated to be between $8.2 billion and $8.7 billion in October.
That’s nearly double the redemptions posted in September, which saw net outflows of $4.5 billion.
While global equity markets posted steep drops last month, Canadian investors pulled out of money market funds as well as long-term funds.
Industry net assets will be between $573.2 billion and $568.2 billion for October, down approximately 9.9% from September’s total of $633.6 billion, IFIC said.
RBC led the way lower with almost $2 billion in net redemptions for the month, and both CIBC Asset Management and TD Asset Management also recorded more than $1 billion in net redemptions each.
The selling pressure was nearly universal. Among those firms reported in the preliminary data, only Manulife Investments, Hartford Investments Canada Corp., and Meritas Mutual Funds didn’t record net redemptions for the month,
“Equity markets continued to face substantial hurdles in October that presented difficulties for managers of pooled investments of any form, including pensions, ETFs and, of course, mutual funds,” said Pat Dunwoody, vice president of member services and communications with IFIC, in a release.
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Investors flee mutual funds in October
Fund assets drop 10% during market turmoil: IFIC
- By: James Langton
- November 4, 2008 November 4, 2008
- 18:00