The Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) announced Friday that mutual fund and exchange trade fund (ETF) sales rose in July, gaining 0.6 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively, compared to June 2019.

Although year-to-date sales numbers for mutual funds are lower than they were in July 2018, coming in at almost $8.6 trillion for the year, down from the $15.2-trillion year-to-date numbers reported in July 2018; year-to-date ETF sales numbers of $12.3-trillion were considerably higher compared to the $10.8-trillion in net sales reported at this time last year.

For the month, mutual fund assets increased by $9.5-billion to reach $1.57 trillion at the end of July 2019.  ETF assets meanwhile, increased by $2.3-billion to reach $183.8-billion.

 In mutual funds, equity mutual funds net sales reached $460-million, recovering from the $1.4-billion in net redemptions the category suffered in June. Bond funds recorded $1.4-billion in net new sales for the month, up from $1.1-billion sold in June. Balanced fund sales declined from $662-million in net new sales posted in June to just $314-million in net new sales for July.

Net redemptions of equity ETFs slowed in July compared to June 2019.  Investors redeemed $152-million in July, an improvement over the $902-million in net redemptions posted in June. Bond ETF net sales, conversely, rose $1.4-billion during the month, up from the $870-million in net new sales recorded in June. All told, mutual funds recorded net sales of $2.5-billion, while ETFs recorded net sales of $1.6-billion in July.