Canada's funds continue outflow

OTTAWA, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- International transactions in securities caused an outflow of 8.5 billion Canadian dollars (about 6.7 billion U.S. dollars) from Canada in June 2021, according to Statistics Canada on Tuesday.

Canadian investors acquired a record 28.1 billion Canadian dollars in foreign securities in June due to large purchases of U.S. shares.

Meanwhile, non-residents added 19.6 billion Canadian dollars in Canadian securities to their holdings, mainly in the form of money market instruments.

As a result, international transactions made a net outflow of 8.5 billion Canadian dollars from the Canadian economy, for a total of 30.6 billion Canadian dollars in the first half of 2021.

Canadian investment in foreign securities amounted to a record 28.1 billion Canadian dollars in June.

For the first half of the year, Canadian investment in foreign securities totaled 94.2 billion Canadian dollars, compared with the divestment of 21.2 billion Canadian dollars for the same period in 2020. Investors largely purchased U.S. shares in the first half of 2021.

Canadian investors acquired 20.8 billion Canadian dollars of U.S. shares in June, their second-largest investment on record after an all-time high investment observed in December 2020.

The investment activity in June mainly targeted shares of large-capitalization technology firms.

Canadian investors added 6.2 billion Canadian dollars of foreign debt securities to their portfolios in June, a fifth straight month of net purchases. Investors focused on non-U.S. foreign bonds and U.S. government Treasury securities.

Foreign acquisitions of Canadian securities totaled 19.6 billion Canadian dollars in June. The investment activity in the month mainly targeted the Canadian money market.

For the first half of the year, foreign purchases of Canadian securities amounted to 63.5 billion Canadian dollars, compared with 90 billion Canadian dollars for the same period in 2020.

Foreign investment in Canadian money market instruments strengthened considerably in June, as non-residents added 18.8 billion Canadian dollars worth to their holdings, their largest investment in six years.

Foreign investors reduced their holdings of Canadian bonds by 52 million Canadian dollars in June, after buying 17.8 billion Canadian dollars in May and 5.5 billion Canadian dollars in April.