Non-residents dumped Canadian bonds while Canadians scooped up foreign stocks in November, Statistics Canada said Monday.

Non-Canadians, burned by debt instruments during the asset-backed commercial paper crisis, sold $5.4 billion of their Canadian bond holdings, the biggest monthly cash-out since December 2005.

But they were not buying Canadian stocks to make up the difference, cutting their equity holdings by $3 billion in the same month, Statistics Canada said.

Instead, foreigners snapped up $4.1 billion in short-term money market instruments.

“Most of the foreign investment was in federal government paper, equally split between U.S. and Canadian dollar-denominated instruments,” StatsCan said in a release.

Meanwhile, Canadian investors cut their holdings of foreign debt instruments, shedding $1.7 billion worth of bonds and $2 billion in money market instruments during the month, StatsCan said.

“This marked the sixth consecutive monthly divestment in foreign debt instruments. Investors have removed $14.8 billion of foreign bonds from their holdings over the last six months,” Statistics Canada said.

However, Canadian investors bought $1 billion more in foreign equities in November, compared with October. U.S. stock prices, as measured by the Standard and Poor’s composite index, have dropped 30% since the end of August, StatsCan noted.

IE