Mutual fund performance reviewKeith Lamond
Overall mutual fund net sales saw a decline last month with sales ending at $1.3-billion, down from $3.8-billion in November 2015.
In December, equity funds saw more redemptions than sales with $38-million in outflows, compared to $9-million in net sales for November. Domestic equity funds continued their net redemption trend, while global and international equity had positive net sales flows, contributing to majority of the net sales, according to a Canaccord Genuity report released today.
Net redemptions for Canadian dividend and income equity improved from the prior month at $641-million, up from $962-million. Canadian-focused equity net outflows were $282-million and Canadian equity net sales stayed negative for the third straight month with $26-million.
For non-domestic equities, global equity saw strong net flows of $501-million while global small/mid cap equity had positive net flows of $271-million.
Balanced funds delivered modest net sales of $1.8-billion for the month, down from $3-billion last month.
"We believe the majority of net flows will continue to be invested in balanced funds (specifically fund of funds)," says Canaccord analyst Scott Chan in the research note.
During the month, net sales in balanced funds were supported by solid net inflows in global neutral balanced – with inflows of $2.1-billion - and Global equity balanced –with inflows of $661-million.
Net redemption trends slightly worsened for Canadian neutral balanced ($1.1-billion from $772-million) and Canadian equity balanced ($481-million from $463-million).
Fixed Income funds also saw declines in sales with $684-million in December, compared to $744-million the month prior.
Clare O’Hara