Precious metal ETFs set a record in August, as institutional investors embraced a relatively new gold ETF, a research report from National Bank Financial Inc. shows.
The report, released Wednesday, said the BMO Gold Bullion ETF (TSX: ZGLD) — launched in March — received “immediate institutional subscription,” drawing $545 million in August.
This was an all-time high for the precious metal ETF category and led to a high in the commodity ETF asset class in Canada, which in total reported inflows of $576 million in August. The record inflows came as the gold bullion price reached the $2,500/ounce milestone for the first time, the report noted.
As a whole, Canadian ETFs gathered $4.2 billion in August, a drop from the $5.2 billion in inflows reported a month prior.
Equity ETFs welcomed $1.6 billion in net flows, thanks to inflows from U.S. and international equities, while Canadian equities once again suffered $1 billion in redemptions.
Fixed-income ETFs net flows were $1.1 billion in August, dominated by Canada aggregate bond ETFs, which saw $1.2 billion in flows.
Outflows in the fixed-income category were primarily driven by Canada government bond ETFs, which lost $963 million in August.
The report also noted that outflows from cash deposit ETFs surpassed $300 million, almost matching the inflows to money-market ETFs. This came after the Bank of Canada lowered its overnight rate for the second time in July.
Canada-listed cryptoasset ETFs generated $102 million in August. However, the category remains in the negative, with $432 million in outflows reported year-to-date.
Canadian ESG ETFs saw $541 million in net outflows in August, bringing year-to-date outflows for the funds to $1.3 billion.
Nearly 90% of the August withdrawals were linked to two ETFs from Mackenzie’s Max Diversification suite, the report said. The two funds (TSX: MWD and MKC) are set to be merged into Mackenzie’s Low Volatility suite, which doesn’t prioritize ESG factors, it said.
August also saw the introduction of 24 new ETFs in Canada, including a suite of single-stock ETFs from Harvest ETFs. Additionally, several of the new ETFs make use of covered-call strategies.
Year-to-date inflows reached $43 billion in the month.