Assets invested in ETFs listed in Canada grew by $4.9 billion in January 2018 to reach a record high of $122bn at the end of the month, according to ETF industry consultants ETFGI. The surge in assets represents the greatest absolute monthly increase for the Canadian ETF industry in almost two years.

AUM in Canada-listed ETFs reached a record high of $122bn at the end of January 2018.

According to ETFGI’s data this monthly increase has only been surpassed once, in March 2016, when assets grew by $8.1bn.

The increase of $4.9bn consisted of net inflows of $1.7bn and growth of $3.2bn from upwards-trending markets.

Equity ETFs gathered the largest net inflows with $852 million, followed by active ETFs with $636m, and fixed income ETFs with $259m.

Leveraged ETFs bucked the trend of net inflows, with $205m pulled from these funds over the month.

January 2018 marked the fourth consecutive month of net inflows into ETFs listed in Canada. The majority of these flows can be attributed to the top 20 ETFs by net new assets, which collectively gathered $1.4bn during the month. The Horizons Medical Marijuana Life Sciences ETF (HMMJ CN) topped the list with net inflows of $198m.

Source: ETFGI.

ETFGI reports that Canadian investors tended to invest in core, market cap and lower cost ETFs in January 2018.

Source: ETFGI.