Canadian ETFs gathered $12 billion in September, bringing year-to-date totals to $85 billion and breaking last year’s record of $76 billion in annual inflows, according to a report released Friday by National Bank Financial.
Equity ETFs registered $5.4 billion in flows for the month, up from $3.8 billion in August, while fixed-income ETFs brought in $4.1 billion, their strongest performance since February.
International equity ETFs led the stock category again last month, “in keeping with the trade war narrative this year,” and adding $2.7 billion, the report said. U.S. equities followed with inflows of $2.3 billion. Financial and energy ETFs, on the other hand, suffered outflows, losing $491 million and $205 million, respectively.
The “frenzy” for “all-equity” asset allocation ETFs also continued, the report noted, with $1.2 billion in inflows for the month.
In the fixed income category, most of the inflows were concentrated in broad/mixed Canadian aggregate bonds, with a single institutional creation — the Scotia aggregate bond ETF (SITB) — accounting for $1.2 billion. Foreign bond ETFs also saw inflows of $798 million, while long-term bond ETFs saw modest outflows of $309 million.
Inverse/leveraged ETFs brought in a record-breaking $907 million, up 9.1% from August. Commodities ETFs saw strong growth of $412 million driven by gold as well as silver bullion as silver prices reached new highs. Year-to-date, commodities ETF inflows reached $1.1 billion, outstripping last year’s total inflows.
Investment in crypto asset ETFs picked up to $329 million in September — the highest monthly inflow of the year — mostly driven by the U.S. dollar, non-hedged version of the Purpose Solana ETF (SOLL/U).
September saw the launch of 41 new ETFs, with Sun Life Financial becoming Canada’s 45th ETF issuer and launching three new funds.
Although no ESG ETFs were listed or delisted in September, two issuers announced upcoming delistings, including Invesco, which will terminate nine ESG funds in December. Even so, the category posted “solid inflows” of $267 million in September, National Bank noted, bringing in $1.6 billion year-to-date.
“Even though this figure is modest compared to the $85 billion inflows to the overall Canadian ETF market, it underscores a gradual resurgence of the investor interest towards ESG ETFs, and marks a reversal from last year, when Canadian investors redeemed $1.6 billion from ESG ETFs,” the report said.