Mutual fund redemptions accelerated in June, according to data published on Thursday from Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC).
Investors pulled $466 million from mutual funds in June, following net redemptions of $32 million in May. In 2017, the industry recorded $5.2 billion in net sales in June.
Net redemption of long-term funds were $907 million in June 2018, while net sales of Money market funds reached $440 million.
Balance fund net redemptions totalled $955 million in June, while net redemptions of bond funds were $481 million.
Net sales of equity funds increased slightly in June to $283 million from $236 million in May. Net sales of specialty funds slipped to $246 million, down slightly from $276 million in May.
Despite the net sales slump, industry assets continued to climb higher in June. The combined assets of Canada’s mutual fund industry totalled $1.51 trillion. Assets increased by $11.3 billion or 0.8% compared to May.
For the first half of 2018, the industry recorded net sales of $14.4 billion, which is less than half of the $31.2 billion recorded in the first six months of 2017.
Long-term net sales were down by 57.4% compared with the first half of 2017, with equity funds the lone bright spot, up 3.5% from 2017.