Foreigners trimmed their holdings of Canadian securities by $7.6 billion in February, the largest divestiture in two and and half years, Statistics Canada reported today.

Foreigners reduced their Canadian bond holdings by $4.2 billion in February, after an increase of $4.5 billion in January.

“On a currency basis, foreign investors reduced their holdings of Canadian-dollar denominated bonds in February by $4.7 billion, reversing much of the $5.9 billion purchased in January,” StatsCan said.

“Foreign holdings of Canadian money market paper fell for a second consecutive month, down $1.6 billion in February, bringing the two-month decline to $3 billion.”

Foreign investment in Canadian stocks declined because of a foreign takeover, the agency said. Investors saw their holdings of Canadian shares decline by $1.8 billion in February, the first reduction in almost a year.

“The reduction in Canadian stocks was dominated by the foreign takeover of a Canadian company whose foreign portfolio shareholders exchanged their Canadian shares for foreign shares.

“This more than offset continued foreign buying of $1.3 billion of secondary market shares.”

Meanwhile Canadians increased their holdings of foreign securities, the agency said.

Canadians added a further $1.3 billion of foreign bonds in February following a small addition in January. The investment was spread evenly over U.S. treasuries, other U.S. bonds, and overseas bonds.