Canadian ETF inflows slowed in April — but they still topped $13B  

After a record first quarter, Canadian ETF flows slowed down in April — but demand was still high as $13.2 billion flowed into the products, a report from National Bank Capital Markets (NBCM) shows. 

“April’s inflow was 27% higher than the 2025 average monthly flow, which itself was a record year,” NBCM said in the report, published Tuesday.  

“Still, this impressive figure was nevertheless a decrease from the enormous quarter that preceded it (35% lower than the Q1 monthly average flow, in fact).” 

Equity and fixed-income funds

The dip was mainly attributed to fixed-income ETFs, which registered a “notable reduction” in inflows, the report noted. The funds took in $922 million in April, compared with $4.9 billion gathered a month prior. 

NBCM said the decline in fixed-income ETF inflows may be due to several factors, including a slowdown in money-market ETF flows (a category that saw a 74% drop in inflows from March), institutional-sized outflows in some long bond ETFs as well as redemptions from ultra short-term bond ETFs.  

By fixed-income fund type, Canadian corporate bond ETFs were the most popular, taking in $592 million in inflows, followed by foreign bond ETFs at $330 million, Canadian aggregate bond funds at $294 million and money-market ETFs at $234 million. Sub-investment-grade and preferred/convertible bond ETFs each pulled in less than $100 million in inflows.

At the same time, Canadian government and U.S./North America bond ETFs reported net outflows of $480 million and $156 million, respectively.  

In terms of maturity, broad/mixed bond ETFs had the highest level of inflows, drawing $652 million. Meanwhile, long-term and ultra-short-term bond ETFs reported net redemptions of $385 million and $68 million, respectively.  

While equity ETFs also saw a drop in monthly inflows compared with March ($12.1 billion), they still accounted for $10 billion of the total inflows for the month.  

On a regional basis, Canadian and global equity ETFs pulled in $3.6 billion and $4.3 billion, respectively. U.S. equity ETFs took in $2.2 billion.   

On a sectoral basis, utilities equity ETFs had the highest inflows at $363 million, followed by technology ETFs at $283 million and “other” equity ETFs at $248 million. Health-care, real estate and energy equity ETFs each had inflows that amounted to less than $100 million.  

On the flip side, financials equity ETFs suffered $751 million in net outflows. Materials equity ETFs lost $91 million in net outflows.  

Other fund categories

NBCM said multi-asset, inverse/leveraged, and crypto-asset ETF flows “experienced [a] smaller decrease in flows” compared with equity and fixed-income funds. 

Multi-asset ETFs registered $1.4 billion in net inflows, compared with $1.6 billion in March.  

Leveraged/inverse ETFs took in $651 million, most of which went to “lightly” leveraged ETFs. In March, their net inflows amounted to $750 million.

Crypto ETFs registered $5 million in net redemptions in April, whereas they reported $26 million in inflows a month prior.  

Commodity ETFs “picked up steam” in April, attracting $201 million in new money, driven by strong creations in a gold bullion fund, the report noted. The fund category registered net inflows of just $20 million a month earlier. 

ESG ETFs also saw “a mild resurgence thanks to two institutional creations in emerging and developed market ESG ETFs,” NBCM said. The fund category raked in $550 million, making up half of its year-to-date inflow tally. In March, they suffered $81 million in net outflows. 

New funds enter market, total ETF AUM tops $800B

April also saw the introduction of 30 new funds across nine providers, including new single-stock, thematic and multi-asset ETFs. 

Total ETF assets under management clocked in at $815 billion at the end of April.