April fund sales top $500 million

Although not as strong as last year, April was another solid month for the fund industry, with net sales coming in at $537 million, according to IFIC.

Overall, Canadian investors and their advisors cashed in their money market funds, opting instead to invest in the top-selling Canadian income balanced and Canadian dividend fund categories.

The Canadian income balanced category generated sales of $447 million, followed by $427 million in the dividend category and $270 million in global equity, helped largely by a last minute rush to buy into the Mackenzie Cundill Recovery Fund before it was closed to new sales.

The Recovery fund netted $210 million in new sales during the month, while the Mackenzie Cundill Value Fund generated another $163 million.

“Overall this was a category that was in net redemptions in April, but the two Mackenzie Cundill funds brought it well into positive territory,” says Morningstar Canada investment funds editor Rudy Luukko. The bond and balanced fund categories rounded out the list of top sellers with net sales of $217 million and $174 million respectively.

Money market funds reported the highest number of net redemptions with Canadians cashing in more than $917 million last month. Canadian equity funds were off $335 million.

A significant source of redemptions in the Canadian equity category was the result of asset transfers among the different United (formerly Assante) Pooled funds, followed by a high number of redemptions reported by the Mackenzie Ivy Canadian Fund. The conservative Ivy fund, managed by Jerry Javasky, reported $86 million in net redemptions, followed by the Trimark Select Canadian Growth Fund with $47 million in net redemptions, and the AGF Canadian Large Cap Dividend Fund. The $3.1 billion dividend fund reported $38 million in net redemptions during the month.

The leading fund company was RBC Asset Management with $362 million in net new sales. The bank’s top selling fund was the O’Shaughnessy International Equity Fund with $77 million in new sales. Mackenzie Financial Corporation reported $122 million in net new sales overall, followed by Desjardins Asset Management, BMO Investments and Dynamic Funds with $109 million, $106 million and $100 million each in net new sales.

Companies reporting the highest number of redemptions during the month include Scotia Securities with $362 million. Of this, $243 million came from the company’s money market fund. AIM Trimark Investments reported $271 million in net redemptions with $94 million coming from the company’s Income Growth fund. CIBC Asset Management reported $131 million in net redemptions with $68 million coming out of the company’s Premium T-Bill Fund; AIC Limited reported $111 million in net redemptions with $37 million leaving the AIC Diversified Canada Fund. Finally, National Bank Securities suffered $72 million in net redemptions with $29 million and $23 million coming from the company’s corporate cash management and treasury management funds.

Filed by Kate McCaffery, Advisor.ca, kate.mccaffery@advisor.rogers.com