Mutual funds sales topped ETF sales in July: IFIC

This brings mutual funds into positive territory for the year to date

By: Noushin Ziafati
August 23, 2024 August 23, 2024
10:32

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Mutual funds recorded their largest single-month inflows in more than two years, bringing the category into positive territory for the year to date, the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) reported Thursday.

The fund industry trade group found that mutual funds pulled in $5.2 billion in July, the largest amount since February 2022, when they recorded net sales of $9.9 billion. The shift is also notable because mutual funds saw net redemptions of $2.5 billion in June and of $4.8 billion a year earlier.

Bond funds accounted for the bulk of July’s net sales, IFIC reported, while equity, specialty and money-market asset categories also experienced positive inflows.

Bond funds pulled in $3.3 billion in July, compared with $1.2 billion in June.

Equity funds received $2.1 billion in July, after suffering $2.6 billion in net redemptions in June.

Specialty funds registered $800 million in inflows in July, up from $473 million in June, while money-market funds sales dropped to $31 million from $2.5 billion in June.

Meanwhile, balanced funds suffered $1.0 billion in net redemptions in July, after losing $4.0 billion the previous month. The category has seen annual net redemptions since 2022, and remains in negative territory for the year to date.

Monthly ETF sales came in at $5.0 billion in July, down from $10.2 billion in June but up from $2.8 billion a year earlier.

Bond ETFs gathered $1.5 billion in July, down from $5.5 billion in June.

Equity ETFs registered inflows of $2.4 billion, close to half of all ETF net sales. That’s compared to $2.8 billion in June.

Specialty ETFs had $271 million in inflows in July, down from $387 million in June.

Money-market ETFs sales dropped to $310 million in July from $1.1 billion.

Both mutual fund and ETF assets under management (AUM) also increased in July.

IFIC said mutual fund assets rose by $65.2 billion to $2.14 trillion, which represents a 3.1% month-over-month gain. ETF assets gained 4.1%, as AUM increased by $17.9 billion to $458.1 billion.