Foreign investment in Canadian securities surged by $11 billion in November, mostly to bonds, Statistics Canada reported today.

This pushed the year-to-date investment to $28.9 billion, just above the average for the last five years and easily surpassing the $8.5 billion invested in 2005.

Meanwhile, Canadians added $5.3 billion worth of foreign securities to their investment portfolios over the month, with nearly three-quarters going to foreign stocks.

Canadian acquisitions of foreign securities have been strong since February 2005 and year-to-date investment has totaled a record $72.5 billion for 2006.

Building on October’s $2.1 billion purchase, non-residents invested a further $11.3 billion in Canadian bonds in November, investing almost equally between corporate bonds and government bonds as they made it the second highest month on record.

Foreign purchases of net new issues (new issues less retirements) in Canadian bonds were the highest in two years, accounting for two-thirds of November’s investments.