Foreign investors bought $709 million of Canadian securities in June, the first investment since January, while Canadian investors acquired $9 billion of foreign securities, according to data Statistics Canada released Monday on Canada’s international securities transactions.
International transactions in securities resulted in a net outflow of $8.3 billion from the Canadian economy in June. This brought the total outflow in the second quarter to $43.7 billion, comparable to the first quarter.
Foreign investors increased their exposure to Canadian debt instruments in June, while they sold equity securities.
They acquired $6.9 billion of Canadian bonds, following a $9.7 billion in purchases in May. The activity in June included corporate ($5.6 billion) and provincial government ($3 billion) bonds, moderated by a $1.3-billion reduction in foreign holdings of federal government bonds.
There was also a $3.2-billion foreign divestment from Canadian money market instruments in June, mostly in private corporate paper (-$3 billion).
In addition, foreign investors reduced their exposure to Canadian shares by $3 billion in June, following a divestment of $11.5 billion in May. The reduction was led by shares in the banking sector and the trade and transportation industry.
Canadian investors bought $9 billion of foreign securities in the month, compared to $13.5 billion in May. Most of the June total ($8.2 billion) was in foreign shares, with U.S. shares accounting for $5.7 billion in purchases and non-U.S. shares for $2.5 billion.
Canadians bought $850 million of foreign debt securities in June, led by non-U.S. foreign bonds ($4.5 billion). Canadian investors reduced their holdings of U.S. government debt securities by $7.5 billion but added $3.7 billion of U.S. corporate debt securities.