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Foreign investors bought $10.5 billion in Canadian securities in June, with the total spread across debt, money market and equity issues.

Canadian bonds attracted $5.5 billion in foreign investment, splitting that amount between new and existing issues. Secondary market purchases of federal debt totalled $5.3 billion, while provincial bonds were sold off to the tune of $2.4 billion.

The most popular new issues were U.S. denominated bonds spread across corporate issuers, provincial and federal government enterprises.

Foreign investors parked $2.7 billion in Canadian money market instruments, reversing a two month sell-off.

Canadian stocks attracted $2.3 billion in new investment, with money flowing into all sectors except technology.

In the first six months of 2009, foreign investors have bought $42.1 billion in Canadian bonds, $10.6 billion in money market paper, and $9.2 billion in stock.

On the other side of the ledger, Canadians shunned foreign fixed income instruments, selling off $1.9 billion in debt, largely U.S. government bonds. Another $660 million in money market investments were sold off.

Foreign stocks were another matter, as Canadians added $4.0 billion to their portfolios. American stocks were the focus of most of that cash.

In the first half of the year, Canadian investors have bought a net $1.1 billion in foreign bonds, while divesting $14.9 billion in stocks and $1.8 billion in money market paper.

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CFA Institute reveals June exam pass rate

The CFA Institute has announced a pass rate of 45% for those who wrote the June 2009 exams. Around the world 104,111 people wrote one of the three six-hour CFA exams that sequentially lead to the designation.

The global pass rate for the Level I exam was 49%, while Level II was passed by 41%. The Level III exam had the highest pass rate of the lot, at 49%. Assuming all those who passed Level III become CFA charterholders, the global ranks will swell to almost 90,000.

To receive their CFA charter, those who passed Level III must also have completed a minimum of four years work experience in the investment industry, signed a commitment to abide by the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct, apply to a CFA Institute society, and become a member of the CFA Institute.

In Canada, 47% of the 8,229 total candidates passed their exam. The same percentage passed in the U.S., while Europe was able to boast a 50% pass rate, the highest for any region.

“We are encouraged by the number of investment professionals who have committed themselves to this rigorous program,” said John Rogers, CFA, president and CEO of the CFA Institute. “We believe financial education and professional ethics training, which are at the heart of the CFA program, are cornerstones of future financial market stability. It’s gratifying to see this strong level of demand for the CFA charter.”

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Invesco Trimark offers global balanced fund

Invesco Trimark has rolled out a new mutual fund, the AIM Global Balanced Fund, managed by the company’s International Growth team, U.S. Large-/Multi-cap Growth team, and its Worldwide Fixed Income (WWFI) team.

“Clas Olsson and his International Growth team have a well-established reputation in Canada for managing funds with strong long-term performance,” said Graham Anderson, Invesco Trimark’s CIO. “The WWFI team, led on this new fund by Russel Matthews, has considerable experience managing institutional mandates and makes an excellent complement to the equity team.”

The fund will maintain about 60% of its assets in global equities, with 40% invested in conservative global fixed income securities.

The equity portion of the portfolio will be patterned after AIM Global Growth Class and will be managed by Matthew Dennis, Barrett Sides and Robert Lloyd.

“We’ve been seeing good opportunities in global equities. We look for high-quality companies that we perceive have attractive risk/return profiles and solid fundamentals throughout the economic cycle,” said Matthew Dennis, portfolio manager. “The key to successful investing is to maintain a long-term perspective.”

The fixed-income portfolio will be modeled on the Invesco Bond Fund, domiciled in Dublin and managed by the Invesco Worldwide Fixed Income team.

At the same time, Invesco Trimark announced it is launching new mutual fund trust versions of AIM International Growth Class, Invesco Canadian Focus Class and Invesco Global Equity Class.

The company is also changing the year-end for its Invesco Trimark Canada Fund Inc. will be changed to March 31, effective January 1, 2010. As such, the distribution dates for all five funds that are share classes of that fund will be affected by this change.

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Mavrix cuts money market fees

Mavrix Fund Management has announced a temporary reduction in management fees and service fees on its money market offerings, citing the historically low yields.

The affected funds are Mavrix Money Market Fund and Mavrix Multi Series Fund Ltd. – Short Term Income Series. The trailer fee will also be temporarily reduced for both money market funds.

Mavrix is the latest of a long string of companies to reduce or even waive the fees on their money market funds.

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Sentry Select completes fund conversion

Sentry Select Capital has announced it has completed the conversion of the Sentry Select Diversified Income Fund into an open-end mutual fund, from a closed-end fund.

Units of the fund were exchanged on a one-for-one basis on August 14, 2009. The name of the fund remains unchanged.

(08/18/09)