Canadian ETFs reported another positive month of flows in October, though inflows were slightly lower than a month prior, a report from National Bank Financial Inc. (NBF) shows.
Released Tuesday, the report said the funds took in $9.4 billion in the month, down from $12.4 billion in September.
Still, ETFs were close to approaching the $100-billion milestone in year-to-date inflows, having gathered “a whopping” $95 billion in inflows in the first 10 months of the year, NBF noted.
Equity ETFs received the bulk of the inflows in October, pulling in $5.3 billion in the month, “spread evenly across Canada, the U.S. and international regions,” the report said.
On a sector-based basis, utilities ETFs took in $89 million, technology ETFs gathered $77 million and materials ETFs received $67 million. “Other” sector-based ETFs, which includes actively managed, equal-weight and tactical-rotation funds, took in $141 million.
Meanwhile, financials ETFs recorded $310 million in redemptions, followed by real estate ETFs at $76 million, health-care ETFs at $35 million and energy ETFs at $19 million.
Fixed-income ETFs received $2 billion in inflows in October.
All fixed-income fund categories reported inflows, except for Canadian government bond ETFs and money-market ETFs, which recorded $2 billion and $62 million in redemptions, respectively.
Canadian aggregate bond ETFs received $1.2 billion in inflows, followed by Canadian corporate bond ETFs at $1 billion, U.S./North American bond ETFs at $930 million, foreign bond ETFs at $481 million and sub-investment grade bond ETFs at $450 million. Preferred/convertible bond ETFs recorded modest inflows, amounting to $31 million.
In terms of maturity, broad/mixed-maturity bond ETFs were most popular among investors, with $3.3 billion in creations. Short-term funds, which recorded $674 million in inflows, were the second most popular.
Multi-asset ETF inflows came in at $1.4 billion in the month.
Inverse/leveraged ETFs “calmed down significantly from the previous month, settling at $580 million,” NBF said, while noting this was “still the highest percentage flow among all asset classes.”
Crypto-asset ETFs suffered $247 million in redemptions, “led by large outflows from Solana ETFs,” the report said.
Commodities ETFs gathered $288 million in inflows.
ESG ETFs experienced a “relatively uneventful” October, with $25 million in inflows recorded.
October was another busy month for ETF providers, who brought 40 new products across asset classes to the market. Capstone Asset Management debuted its first ETFs, making it the 46th provider in the country.
By the end of October, total ETF assets under management stood at $682 million.