Canadian ETF assets reach $60 billion

Canadian ETF assets reached $60 billion in May 2013, finds Pat Chiefalo, director of derivatives and structured products at National Bank Financial.

Along with research associates Daniel Strauss and Ling Zhang, he recently released a report on ETF activity. It reveals $1.5 billion of net inflows came in last month, with equity and fixed income products topping the list of most popular funds.

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The report says, “Equally positive inflows of $800 million to bonds and $710 million to equity drove the $1.5 billion of ETF inflows during the month of May. A mild outflow of -$36 million from commodity ETFs was in keeping with the bearish resource, energy and commodity trades that have been dogging markets since the start of 2013.”

Top flows to foreign equity focused on funds tracking the S&P 500 and MSCI EAFE.

In terms of providers, the report says, “BMO…dominated the inflows with their biggest month ever at just over $1 billion of net creations, with total assets now nearing $12 billion.”

It adds BlackRock reported $240 million in inflows, while Vanguard, First Asset and PowerShares all posted strong percentage growth over the month of May.

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