Investors favour safer funds in April as net fund sales down from year ago
May 15, 2008TORONTO - Canadian investors slashed the amounted they put into mutual funds in April compared with a year ago as net contributions totalled $560.8 million, down from $2.51 billion a year ago, with the lion's share going into safe, low-yielding money market funds.
According to data compiled by the Investment Funds Institute of Canada, net money market fund sales totalled $511.9 million for April, followed by global balanced funds which saw net sales of $475.3 million.
Domestic balanced funds saw net sales of $96.9 million, while bond funds reported net sales of $353.1 million.
Equity funds saw net redemptions of $1.03 billion, including $607 million of Canadian equity funds, $355 million in globe and international equity and $10.1 million in U.S. equity.
Assets under administration totalled $705.2 billion.
"We expect that sales will become more diversified over time as investors seek a balance between the relative performance and relative risk of short-term versus long-term funds," said Pat Dunwoody, IFIC's vice-president of member services and communications.
Investors' decisions in April were made as the benchmark S&P/TSX composite index gained four per cent during the month.
