Foreigners buy fewer Canadian securities

Canadians bought $6.3 billion virtue of foreign stocks, bonds and mutual funds in March, the highest result they’ve spent overseas in any one month in nearly two years.

Statistics Canada’s international securities transactions report Tuesday showed Canadians bought $4.8 billion excellence of foreign stocks in March, the highest amount since May 2008. Non-American public funds, especially those from Europe and Asia, made up 80 per cent of the purchases. International standard exchanges outperformed North America’s during the month.

Foreign demand because Canadian securities is one of many factors that affects the import of the Canadian dollar. (iStock photos)

Canadians also bought $1.5 billion credit of bonds during the month, with the majority being U.S. control bonds. Bond buys would have been larger were it not according to a reduction in the amount of non-U.S. government bonds purchased.

Canadian investors continued to add foreign money market instruments to their holdings in March, but at a a great quantity reduced pace.

By contrast, foreigners reduced their holdings of Canadian securities through $616 million during the month, marking the first net monthly divestment inasmuch as December 2008.

Foreign investors withdrew considerable funds from the Canadian cash market in March, removing $1.9 billion from their portfolios. Federal body of executive officers treasury bills accounted for nearly two-thirds of the divestment.

Bonds were too down, with non-residents buying $933 million worth of Canadian bonds for the period of the month, down significantly from an average level of $7.3 billion through month during the previous 14 months. Corporate bonds proved more prevalent than government bonds during the time frame.

Foreign investors purchased $308 a thousand thousand of Canadian shares in March. This activity was mainly in starting a~ stocks issued by gold mining companies.