Cash ETFs remain popular while energy funds see historic outflows

Nearly $3 billion flowed into Canadian ETFs in August, a third of which went to cash and money-market funds, while energy funds saw historic outflows, according to National Bank Financial.

Fixed-income ETFs continued to dominate inflows last month, accounting for $2.6 billion of the $2.9-billion total. High-interest savings ETFs from CI Global Asset Management and Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. brought in more than $600 million between them, while the Horizons US 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF led all funds with $759 million in net inflows on the strength of a large institutional buy, National Bank said.

Altogether, money-market ETFs brought in $977 million. The report also noted that target-maturity bond funds pulled in $164 million, a significant tally given their low assets under management.

On the equity side, the energy category saw the largest-ever outflows, the report said. Despite positive performance in recent months, $467 million was withdrawn from the “bellwether” iShares S&P/TSX Capped Energy Index ETF, which topped the outflow leaderboard.

U.S. equity funds also saw redemptions, but “demand for overseas exposure vaulted net equity flows into positive territory,” National Bank said, while tech funds also saw positive flows. In total, equity ETFs pulled in $408 million in August.

Asset-allocation and option-based ETFs remained popular, the report said, while investors pulled $201 million from crypto products.

Over the first eight months of the year, Canadian ETFs gathered $25.3 billion. Fixed-income funds accounted for $15.4 billion and equity funds brought in $7.8 billion.

Mark Burgess

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Mark was the managing editor of Advisor.ca from 2017 to 2024.