Canadian ETFs attracted more than $2.9 billion in inflows in March amid heightened financial market volatility, according to a report from National Bank Financial. Total assets under management for the Canadian ETF industry stood at $152 billion at month end.
Canadian equity ETFs fared well with inflows of $728 million, while the U.S. equity category lost some luster and had a meager inflow of $83 million in March. “Investors responded to the market selloff and ongoing choppiness by redeeming assets from broad-market U.S. equity ETFs,” the report says.
Inflows into international equity ETFs ($551 million) were led by emerging market products, where valuations are relatively cheap and fundamentals are improving, the report says.
Fixed income ETF inflows remained mild in March at $322 million, with some inflows into low cost aggregate bond ETFs and preferred share ETFs.
“The multi-asset category had a large apparent inflow mainly because BMO wrapped the newly launched Europe Covered Call ETF (Ticker:ZWP) under its existing CAD-hedged counterpart (Ticker:ZWE), which had accumulated $1 billionin AUM since its launch back in September 2015.” the report says.
Eleven new products launched in March, spread across equity, fixed income, and multi-asset categories.