ETFs continued to rack up positive net sales in September even as mutual funds returned to net redemptions, according to new data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC).
IFIC reported that mutual funds recorded $33 million in net redemptions last month as investors cashed out more than $1.6 billion worth of equity funds.
Balanced funds had modest monthly net redemptions, whereas over $1.5 billion flowed into bond funds, and specialty funds added $500 million in September.
Overall, long-term funds recorded $165 million in positive monthly net sales, but mutual funds were pushed into net redemptions by $198 million in money market funds.
Through the first nine months, mutual funds recorded over $14 billion in net sales with $9.5 billion in long-term net sales and $4.5 billion in money market sales.
The bond and specialty categories are in positive territory for the year, whereas the equity and balanced categories are in net redemptions.
The net redemptions in September came as mutual fund assets declined by $3.7 billion to $1.67 trillion — still higher than $1.63 trillion assets held in mutual funds at the start of 2020.
ETFs, meanwhile, generated $699 million in monthly net sales for September, according to IFIC.
Bond funds led the way with $804 million in net sales, while equity ETFs saw $343 million in net outflows.
Year-to-date, ETF net sales are up to $32.4 billion, more than double the $15.5 billion recorded in the same period last year.
Equity ETFs are the leading asset class so far this year, with $18.6 billion in net sales, up from $4.4 billion in 2019.
Yet, while ETFs recorded positive net sales in September, they couldn’t escape the market turmoil, which slashed assets by $2.5 billion that month.
Total ETF assets are now $234.6 billion, up from $205.1 billion at the end of Dec. 2019.