Fund sales firmly in positive territory in February

Despite a drop in assets, both mutual funds and ETFs boasted positive net sales in February, according to new data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC).

The industry trade group reported that mutual funds recorded $3.3 billion in net sales last month, while ETFs saw $4.1 billion in net sales.

On the mutual fund side, net sales improved after $477 million in net redemptions in January. Equities recorded $423 million in net sales in February, reversing $668 million in net redemptions in January.

Bond fund sales remained positive but dropped slightly, to $2.4 billion from $3.5 billion in January.

The balanced category was hit the hardest, with $945 million in net redemptions for the month. However, the outflows were significantly less than the $4.4 billion in net redemptions in January.  

For ETFs, strong net sales in the bond and equity fund categories in February reversed net redemptions in January, IFIC reported.

Equity ETFs had $1.0 billion in net sales last month, up from $383 million in net redemptions in January. Bond ETFs swung even further, to $1.2 billion in net sales from $940 million in net redemptions the month prior. 

The balanced and specialty ETF categories were more or less unchanged from January with flows of $12.7 million and $11.6 million, respectively.

Both sides of the industry saw a slight decline assets in under management in February. 

Mutual fund assets decreased by 1.0% in February to $1.87 trillion — a $19-billion drop.

ETF assets also decreased, by $1.0 billion or 0.3%, to $327.9 billion, the trade group reported.

Maddie Johnson

Maddie is a freelance writer and editor who has been reporting for Advisor.ca since 2019.