Although not as strong as last year, April was another solid month for the fund industry, with net sales coming in at $537 million, according to IFIC.
Overall, Canadian investors and their advisors cashed in their money market funds, opting instead to invest in the top-selling Canadian income balanced and Canadian dividend fund categories.
The Canadian income balanced category generated sales of $447 million, followed by $427 million in the dividend category and $270 million in global equity, helped largely by a last minute rush to buy into the Mackenzie Cundill Recovery Fund before it was closed to new sales.
The Recovery fund netted $210 million in new sales during the month, while the Mackenzie Cundill Value Fund generated another $163 million.
Money market funds reported the highest number of net redemptions with Canadians cashing in more than $917 million last month. Canadian equity funds were off $335 million.
A significant source of redemptions in the Canadian equity category was the result of asset transfers among the different United (formerly Assante) Pooled funds, followed by a high number of redemptions reported by the Mackenzie Ivy Canadian Fund. The conservative Ivy fund, managed by Jerry Javasky, reported $86 million in net redemptions, followed by the Trimark Select Canadian Growth Fund with $47 million in net redemptions, and the AGF Canadian Large Cap Dividend Fund. The $3.1 billion dividend fund reported $38 million in net redemptions during the month.
The leading fund company was RBC Asset Management with $362 million in net new sales. The bank’s top selling fund was the O’Shaughnessy International Equity Fund with $77 million in new sales. Mackenzie Financial Corporation reported $122 million in net new sales overall, followed by Desjardins Asset Management, BMO Investments and Dynamic Funds with $109 million, $106 million and $100 million each in net new sales.
Companies reporting the highest number of redemptions during the month include Scotia Securities with $362 million. Of this, $243 million came from the company’s money market fund. AIM Trimark Investments reported $271 million in net redemptions with $94 million coming from the company’s Income Growth fund. CIBC Asset Management reported $131 million in net redemptions with $68 million coming out of the company’s Premium T-Bill Fund; AIC Limited reported $111 million in net redemptions with $37 million leaving the AIC Diversified Canada Fund. Finally, National Bank Securities suffered $72 million in net redemptions with $29 million and $23 million coming from the company’s corporate cash management and treasury management funds.
Filed by Kate McCaffery, Advisor.ca, kate.mccaffery@advisor.rogers.com
(05/15/06)