Facts, Facts and More Facts: May 2012 – Fund Industry Wrap-up

Mutual funds (including exchange-traded funds) ended May 2012 with $829 billion in assets, $22.7 billion or 2.7% below the previous month-end. The decline was driven by lower valuations. Meanwhile, net flows into long-term funds were positive, at $1.3 billion. On a year-to-date basis, the long-term fund net flow tally stands at $16.5 billion or 2.1% of beginning assets.

Once again fixed income funds were the hotbed of inflow activity, leading all asset classes with $795 million in net flows during the month. While the hunt for yield remains in place, there are signs of an incipient positive sales momentum in asset classes with equity exposure. Balanced funds finished May with net flows of $255 million. The broad equity fund category built on April’s result and generated positive inflows of $219 million, with robust contributions from the equity income andU.S.equity classes. International equity funds also recorded net flows of $39 million, but core Canadian equity funds remained in net redemption territory to the tune of $597 million.

From a product structure perspective, mutual funds of funds (MFoFs) generated $1.7 billion in net flows. Meanwhile, the ETF segment wrapped up May with $150 million in net redemptions and experienced a $1.6 billion decrease in assets. The ETF asset base now sits at $47.6 billion.

For more details see the upcoming June 2012 issue of Insight Advisory Service http://investoreconomics.com/issue/insight-advisory-service. Posted by Sandeep Gosal sandeep@iei.ca.